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BR  1700  .HB3T:8^5  v.l 
Hook,  Walter  Farquhar,  1798 

1875. 
An  ecclesiastical  biograph3i 


NOTICE  to  Purchasers  of  the  Work,  in  Parts  and 
single  Volumes. 

•    DIRECTIONS  TO  THE  BINDER. 

The  Title,  Dedication  and  Preface  given  herewith,  (dated 
May  15th,  1852,)  are  to  be  placed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  Vol.  I.,  and  the  Binder  is  requested  to 
cancel  the  Dedication  and  the  Prefaces  and  Tables 
which  have  already  appeared  in  that  and  the  rest  of 
the  Volumes. 

The  "Table"  to  be  placed  at  the  End  of  Vol.  VIII. 


AN 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY, 


CONTAINING    THE 


ILibes  of  ^MCient  ^at^ers  anK  Plotrern  MUmn, 


INTERSPERSED    WITH    NOTICES    OF 


HERETICS      AND      SCHISMATICS, 


A    BRIEF     HISTORY    OF     THE     CHURCH     IN     EVERY    AGK 


BY  jf 

WALTER    FAEQUHAR    HOOK,    D.D. 

VICAR   OP    LEEDS. 


VOL.     VIII. 


LONDON : 

F.      AND      J.       RIVINGTON; 
PARKER,    OXFORD  ;     J.  AND    J.    DEIGHTON,    CAMBRIDGE 
T.   HARRISON,    LEEDS. 

1852. 


T.    HARRISON,    PRINTER,    BRIC4aATi;,    LIEDiS. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGRAPHY, 


CONTAINING    THE 


l^tbes  of  ^nctent  J^iatjers  anir  l^otKmt  Htbtnes, 


INTEESPERSED   WITH    NOTICES   OF 


HERETICS      AND      SCHISMATICS 


A    BRIEF     HISTORY    OB'    THE     CHURCH     IN     EVERY    AGE 


WALTER    FAEQUHAE    HOOK,    D.B, 

TICAR   OF    LEEDS. 


Vol.  I. 


LONDON : 

F.      AND      J  .       RIVINGTON  ; 
PARKER,    OXFORD  ;     J.  AND   J.    DEIGHTON,    CAMBRIDGE 
T.   HARRISON,    LEEDS. 


LEEDS  : 

T.    HAREISON,     PRINTER, 

BRIGGATE. 


TO  SIK  WILLIAM    PAGE    WOOD,   M.P. 

My  DEAR  Friend, 

Having  brought  to  a  conclusion  The  Ecclesiastical 
Biography,  in  the  compilation  of  which  I  have  found, 
for  several  years,  a  pleasing  occupation  for  my  few 
leisure  hours,  I  dedico.te  these  Volumes  to  you.  From 
our  boyhood  we  have  been  accustomed  to  take  sweet 
counsel  together  in  all  that  relates  to  religious  prin- 
ciple and  sentiment ;  you  have  walked  with  me  in  the 
House  of  God  as  my  Friend ;  you  have  stood  true  to 
the  Church  of  England  through  evil  report  and  good 
report ;  and  you  have  been  charitably  opposed  to 
religious  extremes  whether  on  the  side  of  Romanism 
or  on  the  side  of  Puritanism ;  treading  ever  in  that 
via  media  in  which  we  are  instructed  that  the  Truth 
must  always  be  found.  To  such  a  one  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  that,  at  the  termination  of 
this  Work,  I  find  myself  more  than  ever  confirmed 

A3 


DEDICATION. 


in  those  Principles  which  we  thought  out  together 
in  early  life,  and  long  before  the  controversies  arose 
which  now  unfortunately  disturb  the  Church;  and, 
with  an  increased  feeling  of  deep  gratitude  to  the 
merciful  Providence  which,  amidst  the  excitements 
of  the  Keformation,  over-ruled  the  passions  of  our 
ancestors  and  directed  their  minds,  while  removing 
the  corruptions  of  Medievalism  and  the  various 
errors  which  grew  up  in  the  dark  ages,  to  "stand 
in  the  ways  and  see  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,"  so 
that  we,  their  descendants,  find  rest  to  our  souls  in 
walking  in  that  good  way, — the  straight  and  narrow 
path, — which  they  marked  out  for  us  ;  and  possess  a 
Church,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  which,  not- 
withstanding many  defects  in  the  administration  of 
it,  is  the  glory  of  our  native  land,  the  terror  of  the 
Papist,  the  monitor  of  the  Puritan,  and  the  bulwark 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

Let  me  add  that  it  is  impossible  to  approach 
Ecclesiastical  History  or  Biography  without  being 
impressed  with  the  fact,  that  the  holiest  of  men, 
whether  Fathers,  Eeformers,  or  Modern  Divines  were 
not  only  fallible  but  sinful  men ;  and  never  let  us 
forget   that  Scriptural  truth   so  firmly  held    in  tlie 


DEDICATION.  V. 

Primitive  Church,  obscured  in  the  Medieval  Church, 
and  re-asserted  at  the  Keformation,  but  repudiated 
by  the  Tridentines,  that  we  must  rely  for  justification 
not  on  our  own  righteousness,  for  sin  cleaves  to 
our  holiest  things, —  but  on  the  alone  merits  and 
righteousness  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  the  King  of  Saints. 

I  am,  my  dear  Friend, 

Your's  most  truly, 

W.     F.     HOOK. 


LEEDS    VICARAGE, 

15th  May,  1852. 


PREFACE. 

The  following  compilation  is  one  of  very  humble 
pretensions  on  the  part  of  the  author,  although  he 
may  be  permitted  to  hope  that  its  usefulness  will 
be  considerable  to  those  for  whose  service  it  was 
composed. 

It  was  commenced  in  1844,  and  has  been  con- 
tinued in  monthly  parts  till  its  completion  in  1852. 
It  was  designed  for  those  among  the  author's 
parishioners,  who,  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits, 
and  without  much  time  for  study,  take  an  interest 
in  Ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  desire  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  History  of  the  Church  and  her 
divines.  If  it  shall  be  found  useful  by  masters  of 
National  Schools  and  their  pupil  teachers,  or  even 
by  those  of  the  clergy  who,  labouring  in  remote 
parishes,  have  no  extensive  library  at  hand,  the 
author  will  be  more  than  repaid  for  the  trouble 
he  has  taken  and  the  labour  he  has  expended  upon 
the  Work. 

Although  the  form  is  biographical,  yet  the  object 
is  historical.      The  reader  must  not  expect  to  find 


Vlll.  PREFACE. 

in  the  articles  of  a  Dictionary  necessarily  brief, 
the  anecdotes  which  render  Biography  one  of  the 
most  interesting  branches  of  study  ;  the  object  of 
a  Biographical  narrative  devoted  to  one  subject  is 
to  throw  light  upon  character  ;  whereas,  a  Bio- 
graphical dictionary  can  only  be  expected  to  state 
the  circumstances  under  which  a  distinguished  cha- 
racter has  been  placed. 

The  Biographies  in  these  volumes  have  been 
written  on  the  following  plan  :  All  points  of  minor 
interest  or  importance,  such  as  those  which  relate 
to  a  person's  family,  have  been  either  omitted  or 
slightly  noticed  :  for  these,  and  for  all  minuter  facts, 
the  reader  must  have  recourse  to  those  works,  which 
are  devoted  exclusively  to  the  history  of  the  person 
whose  life  can,  in  this  place,  be  only  briefly  noticed, 
and  to  which  reference  is  made  at  the  foot  of  each 
article. 

There  have  been  in  most  men's  lives  one  or 
two  important  events  to  which  a  peculiar  interest 
is  attached;  and,  by  omitting  points  of  minor 
importance,  an  opportunity  has  been  afforded  of 
dwelling  upon  these  at  considerable  length.  His- 
torical events  of  Ecclesiastical  interest  have  been 
narrated  with  some  minuteness  of  detail,  when 
the  subject  of  a  Biography  has  been  instrumental 
in  their  accomplishment;  when,  on  the  contrary, 
he  has  been  chiefly  distinguished  by  his  literary 
labours,  the  chief  dates  have  been  given,  which 
are   followed   by  extracts   from   his   works. 


PREFACE. 


On  doubtful  points,  relating  either  to  dates,  or  to 
other  matters  of  detail,  the  author  has  adopted  the 
conclusion  which  he  thinks  most  probable,  without 
entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  reasons  by  which  he 
has  been  influenced  in  his  decision ;  to  have  done 
this  would  have  been  to  occupy  more  space  than 
could,  in  such  a  work  as  this,  be  allotted  to  one 
subject. 

The  authorities  on  which  each  Biography  of  im- 
portance is  composed,  are  given  at  the  end  of  the 
article  :  the  very  words  of  a  biographer  or  historian 
have  been  adopted,  when  the  fact  he  relates  is  briefly 
or  happily  expressed. 

Besides  the  authorities  quoted  at  the  end  of  each 
article,  use  has  been  made  of  Moreri,  Bayle,  and 
Chalmers,  the  Biographia  Britannica,  the  Biographie 
Universelle,  and  other  similar  works. 

The  author  does  not  make  the  slightest  preten- 
sions to  impartiality;  and  he  never  gives  credit  to 
the  sincerity  of  an  author  who  professes  to  be 
impartial.  The  compiler  of  these  Biographies  has 
seen  every  event  with  the  eye  of  one  nurtured  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and,  he  hopes,  thoroughly  im- 
bued with  her  spirit  and  principles.  At  the  same 
time  he  trusts  that  he  has  done  justice  to  every  one, 
whether  Papist  or  Puritan,  when  sincerity,  even  in 
error,  and  real  piety  have  been  displayed.  The 
author  believes  that  he  proves  his  real  love  of  fair 
dealing  by  making  this  admission;  as  the  reader,  now 
knowing    the    bias    of    the    author's   mind,    will   be 


X.  PREFACE. 

prepared  to  make  due  allowance  for  those  prejudices, 
the  existence  of  which,  the  author  does  not  attempt 
to  conceal. 

The  names  of  divines  who  have  flourished  in  the 
present  century  are  not  included  in  these  volumes ; 
a  rule  which  it  was  found  expedient  to  adopt  after 
the  publication  of  the  first  parts  of  the  work. 

The  reader  is  indebted  to  Sir  William  Page  Wood, 
M.P.,  late  solicitor-general  to  her  Majesty,  for  the 
Life  of  Bishop  Berkeley ;  to  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Poole, 
for  the  Lives  of  B^de,  Cyprian  and  Wiclifi';  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Maitland,  for  the  Life  of  Foxe,  the  Mar- 
tyrologist ;  and  to  the  Rev.  G.  Wyatt,  for  the  Life  of 
Heylin. 

At  the  end  of  the  work  a  chronological  arrange- 
ment is  given  of  the  chief  characters  in  each  century, 
for  the  use  of  those  who  desire  to  employ  these 
volumes  as  an  Ecclesiastical  History. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    BIOGEAPHY. 


PEARCE,    ZACHARY. 


Of  this  learned  and  amiable  man,  we  have  an  auto- 
biography, but  it  contains  little  more  than  an  account 
of  his  publications,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  high 
preferments  in  the  Church  came  to  him  without  his 
seeking  them.  He  was  born  in  1690,  in  Holborn, 
where  his  father  was  a  distiller.  He  received  his  primary 
education  at  a  school  at  Ealing,  from  whence  he  was  re- 
moved to  Westminster,  and  from  Westminster  he  was 
elected  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  In  1716,  he 
published  an  edition  of  Cicero  de  Oratore,  with  notes 
and  emendations,  which  he  dedicated  to  Chief  Justice 
Parker. 

When  Parker  became  lord-chancellor,  he  appointed 
Pearce  to  be  his  domestic  chaplain,  and  by  his  lord- 
ship's influence  with  Dr.  Bentley,  Pearce  had  been  pre- 
viously elected  a  fellow  of  his  college.  He  was  ordained 
deacon  in  1717,  and  priest  in  1718.  In  1719,  he  was 
presented  to  the  living  of  Stapleton  Abbots,  in  Essex, 
to  which  was  added  the  next  year,  the  Rectory  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  by  the  Royal  Exchange,  London,  and  he 
was,  not  long  after,  appointed  chaplain  in  ordinary  to 
his  majesty.  In  17*23,  he  was  presented  to  St.  Mar- 
tin's-in-the-Fields,  and  received  a  Lambeth  degree  of 
D.D.  In  17^24,  he  published  his  edition  of  Longinus 
on  the  Sublime,  with  a  new   Latin  version  and  notes. 

VOL.    VIII.  B 


2  PEARCE. 

In  1739,  he  was  appointed  Dean  of  Winchester,  and  in 
1744,  he  was  prolocutor  of  the  House  of  Convocation. 
In  1748,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Bangor,  and  in 
1756,  was  translated  to  the  See  of  Rochester,  to  which, 
the  Deanery  of  Westminster  was  annexed. 

What  follows  is  given  in  his  own  words  : — "  In  the 
year  1763,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  being  then  seventy- 
three  years  old,  and  finding  himself  less  fit  for  the 
business  of  his  station,  as  bishop  and  dean,  informed 
his  friend  Lord  Bath  of  his  intention  to  resign  both, 
and  live  in  a  retired  manner  upon  his  own  private  for- 
tune. And  after  much  discourse  upon  that  subject,  at 
different  times,  he  prevailed  upon  his  lordship  at  last 
to  acquaint  his  majesty  with  his  intention,  and  to 
desire,  in  the  bishop's  name,  the  honour  of  a  private 
audience  from  his  majesty  for  that  purpose.  Lord  Bath 
did  so,  and  his  majesty  named  a  day  and  hour,  when 
the  bishop  went  and  was  admitted  alone  into  his  closet. 
He  there  made  known  his  request  to  his  majesty,  and 
acquainted  him  with  the  grounds  of  it,  telling  him,  that 
he  had  no  motive  for  resigning  his  bishopric  and  deanery 
from  dislikes  which  he  had  to  any  thing  in  the  Church 
or  State ;  that  being  of  the  age  before  mentioned  he 
found  the  business  belonging  to  those  two  stations 
too  much  for  him,  and  that  he  was  afraid,  that  it  would 
still  grow  much  more  so,  as  he  advanced  in  years ;  that 
he  was  desirous  to  retire  for  the  opportunity  of  spend- 
iiog  more  time  in  his  devotions  and  studies,  and  that 
he  was  in  the  same  way  of  thinking  with  a  general 
officer  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  who,  when 
he  desired  a  dismission  from  that  monarch's  ser\dce, 
and  the  emperor  asking  the  reason  of  it,  answered, 
'  Sir,  every  wise  man  would,  at  the  latter  end  of  life, 
wish  to  have  ain  interval  between  the  fatigues  of  busi- 
ness and  eternity. '  The  bishop  then  shewed  him,  in 
a  written  piaper,  instances  of  its  having  been  done  at 
several  times ;  and  concluded  with  telling  his  majesty 


PEARCE.  S 

that  he  did  not  expect  or  desire  an  immediate  answet 
to  his  request  ;  but  rather  that  his  majesty  would  first 
consult  some  proper  persons  among  his  servants  about 
the  propriety  and  legality  of  it.  This  the  king  consented 
to  do,  and  told  the  bishop,  that  he  would  send  for 
him  again,  when  he  was  come  to  a  determination. 

"  About  two  months  afterwards  he  sent  for  the  bishop 
and  told  him,  that  he  had  consulted  about  it  with  two 
of  his  lawyers;  that  one  of  them,  Lord  Mansfield,  saw 
no  objection  to  the  resignation  of  the  bishopric  and 
deanery ;  but  that  the  other  said,  he  was  doubtful  about 
the  practicability  of  resigning  a  bishopric ;  but  that 
however  the  same  law7er.  Lord  Northington,  soon  after- 
wards had  told  him,  that  upon  further  considering 
the  matter,  he  thought  the  request  might  be  complied 
with.  '  Am  I  then.  Sir,'  said  the  bishop,  '  to  suppose 
that  I  have  your  majesty's  consent  ?'  '  Yes,'  said  the 
king.  'May  I  then,  Sir,'  said  the  bishop,  'have  the 
honour  of  kissing  your  hand  as  a  token  of  your  con- 
sent ?'  Upon  that  the  king  held  out  his  hand,  and 
the  bishop  kissed  it. 

"  So  far  all  went  agreeably  to  the  Bishop's  inclination. 
Consent  was  given,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  is  seldom 
recalled  ;  it  being,  as  Lord  -Bath  expressed  it,  a  sort 
of  engagement. 

"  But  unfortunately  for  the  bishop.  Lord  Bath,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  of  the  king's  consent  being  given,  requested 
him  to  give  the  bishopric  and  deanery,  which  were 
to  be  resigned,  to  Dr.  Newton,  then  Bishop  of  Bristol. 
This  alarmed  the  ministry,  who  thought,  as  other 
ministers  had  done  before  them,  that  no  dignities  in 
the  Church  should  be  obtained  from  the  crown  ;  but 
through  their  hands.  They  therefore  resolved  to  oppose 
the  resignation,  as  the  shortest  way  of  keeping  the 
bishopric  from  being  disposed  of  otherwise  than  they 
liked :  and  the  lawyer,  who  had  been  doubtful,  and  who 
soon  after  had  been  clear,  was  employed  to  inform  his 


4  PEARCE. 

majesty  that  he  was  then  again  douhtful,  and  thai  the 
bishops  generally  disliked  the  design.  His  majesty 
upon  this  sent  again,  but  at  some  distance  of  time,  to 
the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  at  a  third  audience  in 
his  closet  told  him,  that  he  must  think  no  more  about 
resigning  the  bishopric ;  but  that  he  would  have  all  the 
merit  of  having  done  it.  The  bishop  replied,  '  Sir,  I 
am  all  duty  and  submission,'  and  then  withdrew." 

The  affair  of  the  resignation  was  again  mooted, — "  In 
the  year  1768,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  having  first 
obtained  his  majesty's  consent,  resigned  his  Deanery  of 
Westminster  upon  Midsummer-day,  which  he  had  held 
for  twelve  years,  and  wtiich  was  nearly  double  in  point 
of  income  to  his  bishopric,  which  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
tain. As  dean  of  that  Church,  he  had  installed  twelve 
knights  of  the  Bath  in  1761 :  he  had  the  honour  of 
assisting  in  the  ceremonies  of  crowning  his  present 
majesty,  and  the  melancholy  office  of  performing  the 
funeral  service  over  King  George  the  Second,  and  six 
others  of  the  royal  family.  He  had  always  given  more 
attention  to  the  interests  of  that  society,  where  he  was 
the  dean,  than  to  his  own ;  and  when  he  quitted  it, 
which  was  without  any  conditions  attending  it,  he  was 
succeeded  in  the  deanery,  by  Dr.  Thomas,  who  had 
been  for  many  years  his  sub-dean  there,  and  whom 
he  favoured  no  farther  towards  his  getting  it,  than  by 
acquainting  him  some  months  before  with  his  intention 
of  resigning  it." 

He  died  at  Little  Ealing,  in  1774.  In  addition  to  the 
works  already  mentioned.  Bishop  Pearce  published  : — 
An  Account  of  Trinity-College,  Cambridge,  1720,  8vo; 
Epistolae  duae  ad  celeberrimum  doctissimumque  virum, 
F.  V.  Professorem  Amstelodamemsem  scriptae;  quarum 
in  altera  agitur  de  editione  Novi  Testamenti  a  clarissimo 
Bentleio  suscepta,  &c,  1721,  8vo  ;  A  Letter  to  the  Clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England,  on  occasion  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester's  commitment  to  the  Tower,  1722,  8vo;    Th© 


PEARSON.  5 

Miracles  of  Jesus  vindicated,  in  4  parts,  1727,  and  1728, 
8vo ;  in  answer  to  some  of  the  principal  parts  of  Mr. 
Woolston's  Six  Discourses  on  the  Miracles  of  Our  Saviour, 
&c. ;  Two  Letters,  in  controversy  with  Dr.  Middleton,  on 
the  subject  of  his  attack  upon  Dr.  Waterland,  1730,  and 
1731,  8vo  ;  Two  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Waterland,  upon 
the  Eucharist ;  Nine  occasional  Sermons  ;  A  Discourse 
against  Self-murder ;  and  a  Concio  ad  Clerum.  The  hu- 
morous pieces  sent  by  the  author  to  the  Guardian,  and 
Spectator,  are  No.  121  in  the  former  work,  and  No.  572 
in  vol.  viii  of  the  latter.  To  the  same  volume  he  com- 
municated the  Essay  on  the  Eloquence  of  the  Pulpit,  in 
No.  G33.  By  his  will  he  bequeathed  his  library  to  the 
Dean  and  Chapter  of  Westminster,  excepting  such  books 
as  they  already  possessed  ;  which  books,  together  with 
his  manuscripts,  he  gave  to  his  chaplain,  the  Rev.  John 
Derb3^  To  that  gentleman  was  bequeathed  the  care  of 
publishing  the  author's  great  work,  the  result  of  many 
years  studious  application.  It  made  its  appearance  in 
the  year  1777,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Commentary,  with 
Notes,  on  the  Four  Evangelists,  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  ;  together  with  a  new  translation  of  St.  Paul's 
first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  with  a  Paraphrase  and 
Notes.  "  &c.,  in  2  vols.  4to.  To  the  Commentary,  &c. 
are  added  some  of  the  author's  earlier  theological  pieces. 
Mr.  Derby  has  also  given  to  the  public,  from  the  author's 
manuscripts,  "  Sermons  on  several  Subjects,"  1778,  in 
4  vols.  8vo. — Life  i^'^fi^^f-l  to  Commentary,  and  Auto- 
biography, 


PEAESON,    JOHN. 

This  great  divine  was  born  at  Great  Snoring,  of  which 
place  his  father  was  rector,  on  the  28th  of  February, 
1612-13.  In  1623,  he  went  to  Eton,  where  he  con- 
tinued till  1631.  He  was  then  admitted,  on  the  10th 
B  3 


6  PEARSON. 

of  June,  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge  ;  but  within 
a  year,  in  April,  1632,  he  was  elected  scholar  of  King's, 
of  which  he  became  fellow,  in  1634.  He  proceeded 
B.A.  in  1635,  and  M.A.  in  1639,  in  which  year  he 
entered  into  holy  orders. 

There  are  many  stories  of  him  in  this  college, 
says  Cole,  who  was  himself  a  fellow  of  King's  ;  one 
of  which  is,  that  some  one  of  his  acquaintance,  seeing 
him  still  at  Eton  a  long  while  after  he  had  left  it, 
spoke  to  him  in  this  manner,  "So,  John!  what  here 
still?  To  my  knowledge  you  have  been  the  best 
scholar  in  the  school  these  ten  years."  Certain  it  is, 
that  such  was  his  propensity  to  books  and  knowledge 
while  a  school-boy,  that  all  the  money  he  could  get 
went  for  the  first,  and  all  the  time  out  of  school  to 
the  improvement  of  the  last:  nay,  he  hardly  allowed 
himself  time  for  natural  rest:  for  when  the  prepositor 
at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  saw  that  all  the  candles, 
according  to  rule,  were  put  out  in  the  long  chamber 
or  dormitory,  he  would  contrive  to  light  up  his  within 
an  hour  or  two  after,  when  all  the  boys  were  asleep ; 
and  by  this  means,  I  have  heard  it  affirmed  that 
before  he  left  Eton  to  come  here,  he  had  read  most 
of  the  Greek   and  Latin  fathers  of  the  Church. 

It  is  not,,  perhaps,  very  probable,  that  a  boy  at 
school  should  have  done  quite  so  much  as  is  here 
affirmed :  but  it  is  easily  supposed  that  the  vigor- 
ous and  deep  mind  of  Pearson  grew  early  accustomed 
to  lore  beyond  the  ordinary  study  of  school-boys. 
And  the  perfect  training  of  his  memory  in  the  writings 
of  the  fathers,  guiding  him  in  his  Exposition  of  the 
Creed,  and  other  works,  not  only  to  apposite  quotations 
on  every  doctrinal  point,  but  perhaps  to  the  most 
apposite  which  his  authors  contain,  is  in  itself  an 
evidence  of  the  zeal  his  youth  had  shewn  in  acquiring 
that  perfect  skill.  His  grateful  remembrance  of  Eton 
is  expressed   in  a  passage  of   the  Vindiciaelgnatianae, 


PEARSON.  r 

with  something  of  the  tone  of  a  man  who  is  conscious 
that  he  had  not  wasted  the  years  of  boyhood.  Sir 
Henry  Savile,  whom  he  mentions  in  the  same  sen- 
tence, was  dead  before  he  went  to  school ;  but  Savile 's 
Chrysostom  was  perhaps  accessible ;  and  there  was  a 
link  in  after-years  to  connect  him  with  Savile's  me- 
mory, when  he  became  acquainted  with  the  memorable 
John  Hales. 

Our  famous  Dr.  Pearson,  says  Allen,  was  a 
yery  hard  student  at  college ;  and  finding  that  the 
fireside  diverted  the  intention  of  his  thoughts,  and 
dulled  his  spirits,  he  avoided  coming  near  it  as  much 
as  possible,  contented  to  sit  close  to  his  books,  with  a 
blanket  thrown  over  his  shoulder.  This  is  very 
characteristic :  the  discipline  of  a  cold  room  to  quicken 
the  attention  is  still  not  unknown  to  hardy  students ; 
though  the  modern  luxuries  of  stoves  and  warm  air 
have  somewhat  rebated  the  keen  edge  of  such  literary 
enterprise. 

On  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1639,  Pearson  in- 
herited certain  lands,  mentioned  in  his  will,  situated  at 
Snoring  and  Downham ;  and  the  income  derived  from 
this  source  may  have  preserved  him,  during  the  troubled 
period  now  impending,  from  those  extreme  privations 
suffered  by  many  of  the  loyal  clergy.  About  the  same 
time,  he  was  collated  by  Dr.  John  Davenant,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  to  the  Prebend  of  Netherhaven,  in  that 
cathedral;  a  preferment  which,  no  doubt,  he  owed  to 
that  prelate's  regard  for  his  father;  Davenant  having 
been  with  him  a  fellow  of  Queen's,  over  which  college 
he  presided  as  master  before  his  elevation  to  the  See  of 
Salisbury.  Within  a  few  months  after  he  had  obtained 
this  preferment,  he  resigned  his  fellowship,  but  con- 
tinued to  reside  at  King's,  as  a  fellow-commoner. 

In  June,  1640,  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  Lord 
Keeper  Finch.  He  was  about  the  same  time  presented 
to  the  hving  of  Thorington,  in  Suffolk,  but  not,  as  Arch- 


8  PEARSON. 

deacon  Churton  shews,  by  Lord  Keeper  Finch,  but  pro- 
bably by  Mr.  Henry  Coke,  son  of  the  great  lawyer,  Sir 
Edward  Coke. 

In  the  troublous  times  which  now  came  on,  Pearson 
took  his  side  manfully  and  devotedly  as  a  royalist.  He 
preached  strongly  on  the  subject  at  Cambridge,  and  we 
find  him,  in  1645,  acting  as  chaplain  to  the  forces  under 
the  command  of  Lord  Goring,  at  Exeter,  After  the  dis- 
persion of  this  last  hope,  he  appears  to  have  resigned  his 
living  and  to  have  taken  up  his  abode  in  London,  where 
he  is  said  for  a  time  to  have  been  chaplain  to  Sir  Piobert 
Coke,  and,  subsequently  to  George,  Lord  Berkeley. 

Pearson's  first  controversial  work  was  a  notice  of  a 
book  called  Exomologesis,  or  a  faithful  narration  of  his 
conversion,  written  by  Hugh  Paulin  de  Cressy,  an 
apostate  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  proselyte 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Pearson  attacks  him  in  a 
short  argumentative  preface  which  he  prefixed  to  Lord 
Falkland's  Discourse  on  the  Infallibility  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  :  in  which  he  takes  notice  of  some  singular 
admissions  of  Cressy 's  on  the  subject  of  this  infalli- 
bility, made  in  sec.  ii.,  c.  21.  of  his  Exomologesis. 
Cressy  replied  to  him  in  a  second  edition  of  his  book, 
printed  at  Paris,  1653,  by  an  appendix  of  great  length, 
in  which  he  professes  to  clear  "  the  misconstructions" 
of  J. P., — a  term  often  employed  by  a  controversialist, 
when  he  finds  he  has  allowed  his  opponent  too  much 
advantage  by  his  former  statements.  And  it  appears 
from  his  own  confessions  in  this  Appendix,  that  his 
book  had  met  with  some  severe  censure  on  this  ground 
from  his  new  friends  abroad.  The  point  of  infallibility 
is  indeed  one  that  is  maintained  with  great  latitude, 
and  in  many  discordant  ways,  by  the  advocates  of  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  as  is  admitted  by  Cressy  in  his 
reply,  and  was  afterwards  forcibly  urged  by  Charles 
Leslie,  and  allowed  by  one  who  undertook  to  answer 
him  with  more  learning  than  logic. 


PEARSON.  9 

In  1649,  he  published  an  answer  to  a  minor  as- 
sailant of  Catholic  practice  from  among  the  sectaries, 
in  a  short  tract  entitled  "  Christ's  Birth  not  Mistimed"; 
in  refutation  of  an  attempt  which  had  just  been  made 
to  throw  discredit  on  the  calculation  by  which  the 
Church  keeps  the  day  of  our  Lord's  Nativity  on  the 
25th  of  December.  The  argument  of  the  opponent 
was  founded  on  the  courses  of  the  Jewish  priests  with 
reference  to  St.  Luke,  and,  as  Hammond  says  of  it, 
"was  evidently  demonstrated  to  be  a  mere  deceit"  by 
Pearson,  from  the  testimony  of  Josephus  and  other 
Jewish  writers. 

The  next  memorable  circumstance  in  Pearson's  life  is 
the  engagement  which  he  made  with  the  parishioners 
of  St.  Clement's,  Eastcheap,  to  undertake  the  office 
of  preacher  in  their  parish  Church.  It  has  been  made, 
says  Archdeacon  Churton,  a  question  whether,  to  hold 
this  appointment,  he  complied  in  any  way  with  the 
times.  The  supposition  that  he  did  so  seems  to  have 
arisen  from  a  mistake  as  to  the  office  itself.  He  was 
not  rector  of  St.  Clement's,  or  minister,  as  the  style 
then  ran,  but  preacher  or  lecturer.  The  lawful  rector 
of  St.  Clement's  during  the  whole  period  of  the  usurpa- 
tion >vas  Benjamin  Stone,  a  chaplain  of  Bishop  Juxon's, 
who  was  also  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  and  rector  of 
St.  Mary,  Abchurch ;  a  man  who  incurred  a  bitter 
persecution  at  the  hands  of  the  parliament,  was  very 
early  voted  unfit  to  hold  any  eccleisastical  benefice, 
and  suffered  a  long  imprisonment  at  Crosby  House, 
and  afterwards  at  Plymouth,  without  being  brought  to 
trial.  He  lived  to  be  restored  after  the  return  of  the 
royal  family.  The  intruder  in  his  room  at  St.  Mary 
Abchurch  was  one  John  Kitchin,  whose  name  appears 
with  that  of  Beynolds,  Matthew  Poole,  Manton,  Bates, 
and  about  sixty  other  presbyterian  ministers  of  London 
and  the  suburbs,  subscribed  to  the  *'  Seasonable  Exhor- 
tation" of  1660.     But  at  St.  Clement's  we  find  no  record 


10  PEARSON. 

of  any  rector  occupying  his  place ;  one  Walter  Taylor 
is  called  pastor  in  the  parochial  vestry-book  from  1649 
to  1040,  but  no  appointment  has  been  discovered  in 
the  episcopal  registers :  after  his  departure  the  church- 
wardens seem  to  have  managed  the  temporalities,  and 
the  entries  in  the  vestry- book  make  it  probable  that  the 
services  of  the  Church  were  during  this  time  entirely 
discharged  by  ditierent  voluntary  lecturers. 

Fortune  teaches  the  conquered  the  art  of  war.  It 
was  one  of  the  ordinances  of  the  long  parliament, 
which  had  now  the  force  of  law,  "  That  it  should  be 
lawful  for  the  parishioners  of  any  parish  in  England 
or  Wales,  to  set  up  a  lecture,  and  to  maintain  an 
orthodox  minister,  at  their  own  charge,  to  preach 
every  Lord's  day,  where  there  was  no  preaching,  and 
to  preach  one  day  in  every  week,  where  there  was  no 
weekly  lecture."  This  ordinance,  passed  in  September, 
1641,  was  designed  only  to  open  the  door,  which  Laud 
and  Wrenn  had  closed  in  their  efforts  for  conformity ; 
but  it  was  left  so  widly  ajar,  that  tliere  w;is  room  for 
Rutulian  as  well  as  Trojan  to  enter  in.  By  degrees 
several  Churches,  left  without  their  lawful  pastors,  were 
supplied  with  preachers  or  lecturers  who  were  known  to  be 
friends  of  the  exiled  family  and  the  deprived  episcopate. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Triers,  Presbyterian  or 
Independent,  had  any  jurisdiction  beyond  the  admission 
to  benefices :  nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  lectures  could 
fall  under  their  province,  without  rescinding  the  liberty 
so  impetuously  demanded  and  so  eagerly  established 
at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle.  Thus  Dr. 
Thomas  Warmestry  was  lecttirer  at  St.  Margaret's 
Westminster,  till  one  of  Cromwell's  parliaments  peti- 
tioned the  protector  to  remove  him.  Thus  a  friend 
of  Pearson's,  a  man  of  gi'eat  learning  and  eloquence 
as  a  preacher,  Antony  Faringdon,  was  sometime 
preacher  at  St.  Mary  Magdalen's,  Milk-street :  imited, 
as   Wood    savs,    by  Sir  John  Robinson,  a  kinsman  of 


PEARSON.  It 

Laud's,  (afterwards  lieutenant  of  the  Tower  under 
Charles  II.)  "  and  others  of  the  good  jDarishioners." 
That  he  was  only  preacher,  and  not  incumbent,  is 
evident  from  his  own  beautiful  and  touching  sermon 
on  Gal,  iv.  12,  preached  on  his  recall  to  the  lecture- 
ship, from  which  a  temporary  misunderstanding  with 
tlie  parishioners  had  caused  his  temporary  removal. 

In  1655,  Pearson  published  his  Prolegomena  in 
Hieroclem,  prefixed  to  the  Oj)uscula  of  that  author 
edited  by  Meric  Casaubon.  It  was  two  years  after 
this,  that  we  find  him  engaged,  with  his  friend  Peter 
Gunning,  in  a  conference  with  two  Roman  Catholics 
whom  he  met  in  London,  on  the  question  whether 
the  Church  of  England  or  that  of  Rome  at  the  period 
of  the  Reformation  was  guilty  of  schism.  The  con- 
ference was  prolonged  by  several  adjournments  during 
the  months  of  May,  June,  and  July,  1657;  and  then 
virtually  abandoned  :  though  some  negotiations  for  a 
renewal  of  it  were  kept  up  for  some  time  afterwards 
with  Gunning.  In  the  course  of  the  next  year,  one 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  disputants  published  his  state- 
ment of  the  controversy  in  a  volume,  said  to  have 
been  printed  in  France,  under  the  title,  "  Schism  Un- 
masked; or,  a  late  Conference  between  Mr.  Peter 
Gunning  and  Mr.  John  Pierson,  Ministers,  on  the 
one  part,  and  two  Disputants  of  the  Romish  Profession 
on  the  other;  wherein  is  defined  both  what  Schism 
is,  and  to  whom  it  belongs."  A  volume  so  drawn  up, 
and  printed  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  one 
of  the  tv^^o  parties,  has  no  claim  to  be  considered  as  a  fair 
report  of  the  debate.  The  Romanist,  w^ho  pubhshed 
it,  is  stated  by  Baxter,  on  the  information  of  Tillotson, 
to  have  been  a  person  of  the  naiue  of  Tyrwhitt ;  with 
whom  he  also  had  a  controversy  on  paper  without 
knowing  his  opponent,  and  from  whom  he  attempted, 
without  success,  to  recover  a  young  Presbyterian  maiden, 
the  Lady  Anne  Lindsey,  daughter  of  the  Countess  of 


13  PEARSON. 

Balcarras,  whom  Tyrwhitt  had  persuaded  to  become 
a  convert  at  the  mature  age  of  seventeen,  and  after- 
wards conveyed  her  away  to  a  nunnery  in  France. 

Tyrwhitt's  book  contains  some  scattered  extracts  of 
the  papers  that  were  offered  in  the  conference  by  Gun- 
ning and  Pearson,  but  arranged  in  an  order  of  his 
own;  and  he  confesses  that  he  does  not  print  all  that 
they  offered,  and  particularly  speaks  of  a  long  letter 
of  six  folio  pages  from  Gunning,  with  which  the  treaty 
appears  to  have  closed,  as  "  too  long  to  be  inserted." 
No  notice  was  taken  of  the  publication  by  either 
Pearson  or  Gunning ;  and  indeed,  notwithstanding 
all  the  advantage  taken  of  arrangement  and  additions 
of  his  own,  the  book  does  not  present  a  favourable 
aspect  of  the  controversy  as  conducted  by  Tyrwhitt 
and  his  ally.  It  was  complained  of,  as  an  unfair 
relation  of  the  dispute,  in  the  following  year,  by 
Thomas  Smith,  of  Christ's  Coll.,  Cambridge,  in  a 
book  called  "  A  Gag  for  the  Quaker ; "  and  again, 
thirty  years  afterwards,  by  Dr.  William  Saywell,  mas- 
ter of  Jesus  Coll.,  in  an  able  pamphlet  entitled  "  The 
Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  justified  ac- 
cording to  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  and  other 
General  Councils,"  in  answer  to  another  pamphlet  pub- 
lished by  a  Romanist  at  Oxford,  which  was  an  extract 
from  Tyrwhitt's  book,  with  the  title  "  The  Schism  of 
the  Church  of  England  demonstrated  in  four  Argu- 
ments formerly  proposed  to  Dr.  Peter  Gunning,  and 
Dr.  John  Pearson,  the  late  Bishops  of  Ely  and  Chester, 
by  two  Catholic  Disputants  in  a  celebrated  Conference 
on  that  point." 

In  1659,  he  published  the  first  edition  of  his  Expo- 
sition of  the  Creed,  being  the  substance  of  a  series 
of  sermons  or  lectures  preached  at  St.  Clement's,  "  the 
most  perfect  theological  work,"  as  Alexander  Knox 
well  characterises  it,  "that  has  ever  come  from  an 
English   pen."       To   say    more   of    it   than   to    repeat 


PEARSON.  13 

this,  which  is  indeed  the  common  sentence  of  approval 
it  has  received  from  the  Church  ever  since  it  first 
appeared,  is  altogether  unnecessary.  It  has  remained 
without  an  effort  made  to  amend  or  supersede  it.  It 
has  been  continually  reprinted  as  the  storehouse  and 
armoury  of  the  well-furnished  theological  student  ; 
repeatedly  abridged  by  judicious  and  learned  clergy- 
men, to  extend  its  use  as  a  manual  of  Christian 
education ;  and  it  was  at  an  early  period  translated 
into  Latin  by  a  German  scholar,  Simon  J.  Arnold, 
whose  version  has  been  once  or  oftener  reprinted 
abroad.  Among  the  abridgments  may  be  mentioned 
those  of  Basil  Kennett,  and  Dr.  Burney ;  but  the 
best  without  comparison  is  that  excellent  Analysis 
lately  published  at  Calcutta,  for  the  use  of  his  Indian 
pupils,  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Mill,  and  since  re-published  in 
London. 

In  this  same  year,  Pearson  wrote  a  preface  to  Dr. 
David  Stokes's  "  Paraphrastical  Explication  of  the  Minor 
Prophets,"  an  unpretending  work  of  considerable  merit, 
and  one  which  may  be  profitably  consulted  now  by 
those  who  desire  a  modest  and  safe  guide  to  the  mean- 
ing of  those  often  obscure  Scriptures.  Stokes  was 
one  of  Brian  Walton's  fellow-labourers  in  the  Poly- 
glott ;  he  had  lost  a  canonry  at  Windsor  and  a  living 
in  Berkshire  by  the  rebellion,  but  lived  to  be  restored 
to  both. 

He  wrote  also  a  Preface  to  the  "  Remains  of  the 
learned  and  ever-memorable  John  Hales,"  for  whom 
he  had  a  strong  personal   regard. 

The  noble  collection  of  the  "  Critici  Sacri  "  alone  re- 
mains to  be  mentioned  as  forming  a  portion  of  Pearson's 
literary  labours  at  this  period.  The  date  of  the  publi- 
cation is  1660  ;  but  as  it  was  for  several  years  previously 
in  preparation,  it  naturally  belongs  to  the  period  before 
the  restoration  of  the  royal  family.  It  appears  by  the 
preface,  which  bears  very  decisive  marks  of  the  hand 
VOL.   VI u.  c 


n  PEARSON. 

of  Pearson,  that  the  bookseller,  Mr.  Cornelius  Bee,  was 
the  chief  patron  and  promoter  of  the  work.  His  name 
has  been  honourably  mentioned  as  an  encourager  of 
works  relating  to  English  history  and  antiquities;  but 
the  great  publisher  of  the  theology  of  the  Church  at 
this  period  is  well  known  to  have  been  the  loyal  Richard 
Royston.  It  is  probable  that  Royston,  and  the  other 
booksellers  whose  names  are  on  the  title-page,  including 
Morden  and  Robinson,  the  booksellers  of  Cambridge 
and  Oxford,  had  a  share  in  the  undertaking;  but  it 
deserves  to  be  remembered  to  the  honour  of  Cornelius 
Bee,  that  such  a  monument  of  sacred  literature  was 
erected  by  the  laudable  zeal  and  enterprise  of  one 
who  was  by  profession  only  a  trader  in  the  service  of 
learning.  The  Polyglott  was  carried  on  by  the  help  of 
many  liberal  subscriptions  from  the  loyal  nobility  and 
gentry,  who,  after  suffering  a  second  decimation  under 
Cromwell,  had  still  something  to  spare  for  learning, 
and  the  learned  sufferers  by  whom  that  task  was  ac- 
complished. But  the  Critici  Sacri  was  a  bookseller's 
speculation,  requiring  a  very  great  outlay,  before  any 
return  could  possibly  be  made  ;  it  is  not  easy  to  say 
how  many  thousands  of  pounds  it  would  now  cost  to 
reprint  it.  It  is  however  to  be  reasonably  hoped,  that 
the  event  corresponded  to  his  wishes  ;  the  change  of 
dynasty  coming  in,  just  as  the  nine  volumes  were  ready 
to  be  issued,  must  no  doubt  have  had  a  favourable  effect 
upon  the  sale ;  and  there  would  not  be  many  libraries 
to  which  the  Polyglott  had  found  admittance,  to  which 
the  Commentators  did  not  follow. 

Pearson  was  engaged  in  some  controversies  in  defence 
of  the  Church  of  England,  which  cannot  be  more 
particularly  noticed  here ;  but  an  account  of  which 
may  be  found  in  Archdeacon  C burton's  Life  of  this 
great  divine. 

At  length,  the  Restoration  of  the  Church,  together 
with  that  of  the  monarchy,  was  effected  ;   and,  at  the 


PEARSON.  15 

close  of  1660,  Pearson  was  collated  by  Juxon,  Bishop 
of  London,  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  Christopher's,  in  the 
city:  he  was  created  D.D.  by  royal  mandate:  he  was 
installed  as  a  Prebendary  of  Ely:  nominated  Arch- 
deacon of  Surrey :  and  appointed  Master  of  Jesus 
College,  Cambridge. 

In  1661,  he  was  selected,  with  Earle,  Heylin,  Hacket, 
Barwick,  Gunning,  Thomas  Pierce,  Sparrow,  and  Thorn- 
dike,  to  act  as  one  of  the  representatives,  in  the  Savoy 
Conference,  of  such  of  the  bishops  as  should  be  hindered 
by  age  or  infirmity,  or  charge  of  other  duties,  from 
constantly  attending  at  the  meetings.  In  this  confe- 
rence he  seems  to  have  taken  some  part  from  the 
commencement  of  the  proceedings ;  but  we  have  no 
account  of  his  individual  share  in  them,  except  during 
the  written  disputation  of  the  last  few  days. 

On  one  of  these  days,  as  Baxter  relates,  Pearson 
having  offered  to  answer  the  objections  of  the  Presby- 
terians, it  was  determined  that  three  on  each  side 
should  take  by  turns  the  part  of  opponents  and  respon- 
dents. Upon  which  Baxter  and  his  friends  commenced 
by  offering  to  the  episcopal  disputants  the  following 
unpromising  syllogism : — 

"  To  enjoin  all  ministers  to  deny  the  communion 
to  all  that  dare  not  kneel  in  the  reception  of  the 
sacrament  on  the  Lord's  day,  is  sinful :  but  the  Com- 
mon Prayer-book  and  Canons  enjoin  all  ministers  to 
deny  the  communion  to  all  that  dare  not  kneel  in 
such  reception :  ergo,  the  Common  Prayer-book  and 
Canons  do,  or  contain,  that  which  is  sinful." 

To  prove  the  major,  Baxter  argued  that  it  was  con- 
trary to  the  custom  of  the  primitive  Church  to  commu- 
nicate on  Sundays  in  a  kneeling  posture ;  because 
the  twentieth  Nicene  canon  and  other  ancient  autho- 
rities shew  that  the  established  usage  was  not  to 
worship  by  genuflection  on  any  Lord's  day,  or  any 
day   between    Easter  and   Whitsuntide,       There    is   a 


16  PEARSON.       • 

remarkable  silence  in  Baxter's  statement  on  the  point 
which  he  was  more  concerned  to  prove ;  namely,  that 
there  was  any  primitive  sanction  for  the  custom  of 
sitting,  as  prescribed  by  the  Directory,  at  the  Lord's 
table :  and  an  equally  remarkable  assumption,  that 
by  excluding  kneeling  at  certain  times,  the  primitive 
Church  intended  to  exclude  all  posture  of  worship. 
Of  this  it  is  not  possible  to  suppose  that  Pearson 
and  his  brother  disputants  could  be  ignorant.  Baxter, 
however,  states  that  the  answer  in  which  they  rested 
was,  that  the  Nicene  canon  and  other  authorities 
spoke  only  of  prayer,  and  not  of  the  posture  at  the 
communion ;  an  answer  which,  though  it  did  not 
satisfy  him,  was  known  by  his  better  informed  oppo- 
nents to  be  sufficient,  since  it  is  clear,  from  testimony 
bearing  directly  on  the  question,  that  the  ancient 
custom  was  to  approach  the  altar,  either  kneeling,  or 
bowing  low,  which  was  equally  a  token  of  humble 
reverence. 

And  this  will  perhaps  help  to  explain  what  Baxter 
appears  not  to  have  understood  in  Pearson's  way  of 
dealing  with  his  minor.  The  Presbyterians  were 
desired  to  prove  the  minor;  and  Pearson  would  not 
allow  their  mode  of  proof,  by  which  they  joined  the 
Prayer-book  and  Canons  of  1603  together.  "Dr. 
Pierson  confessed,"  says  Baxter,  "that  the  Canons 
did  reject  them  that  kneel  not ;  but  the  words  of  the 
Common  Prayer-book  do  not :  they  only  include  kneel- 
ers,  but  exclude  not  others."  It  is  certain  that  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Rubric  amounting  to  a  prohibition 
of  administering  it  to  others.  It  may  therefore  have 
been  Pearson's  meaning,  that  before  the  canon  had 
fixed  it,  the  minister  would  not  violate  the  order  of 
the  Praper-book,  who  should  give  the  sacred  elements 
to  one  who  stood  and  bowed  himself,  though  he  did 
not  kneel.  This  mode  of  argument,  however,  was 
interrupted    by     Bishop    Morley,     whose    business    it 


PEARSON.  17 

was,  says  Baxter,  to  offend  the  Non-Conformists ;  and 
the  bishop  having  given  his  judgment  for  the  exclu- 
sive sense,  there  was  no  opportunity  for  further  expla- 
nation. 

It  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed,  that  Pearson 
would  have  shewn  any  indulgence  to  the  sitters  in  the 
pews,  to  whom  Tillotson  was  anxious  to  grant  every 
accommodation.  In  his  "  Articles  for  the  Primary 
Visitation  of  his  Diocese,"  this  point  of  inquiry  was 
strictly  attended  to ;  that  "  all  who  received  this  sacred 
mystery,"  should  do  it  "  with  that  outward  gesture 
of  humility  and  reverence,  as  became  them,  lur^^ekly 
kneeling  upon  their  knees."  But  it  is  now  in  our 
power  to  refer  to  a  still  more  decisive  testimony  from 
one  of  his  Cambridge  speeches,  delivered  not  long 
after  the  Savoy  Conference,  and  before,  or  near  upon 
the  time  of  the  secession  of  Baxter  and  his  eighteen 
hundred  followers  ;  a  time  at  which,  evidently,  he  had 
some  fears  lest  their  example  should  spread  insubor- 
dination in  the   university. 

At  the  conference,  it  is  possible  that  Baxter  mny 
have  misunderstood  him,  because  he  strictly  confined 
himself  to  the  logical  rules  of  conducting  a  disputa- 
tion,— rules  somewhat  too  rigid  for  the  erratic  genius 
of  his  opponent.  Accordingly,  after  many  attempts 
to  re- mod  el  the  syllogism,  being  closely  pressed 
with  the  formal  and  material  errors  pointed  out  by 
Pearson  and  Gunning,  Baxter  took  his  papers  home 
again,  and  was  prepared  with  a  new  dissertation  instead 
of  a  syllogism,  the  following  morning.  Gunning  re- 
plied to  this,  and  Baxter  rejoined  at  the  length  of 
seven  folio  pages,  but  not  without  a  further  paper  from 
Gunning,  who  seems  to  have  been  unwilling  that  the 
Presbyterian  leader  should  occupy  the  whole  time  of 
the  meetings. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  opponents  and  respondents 
having  changed  places,  that  none  of  the  space  left  for 
c3 


18  PEARSON. 

debate  might  be  unemployed,  the  same  argument  was 
debated  in  another  form,  Of  this  an  attested  account 
was  afterwards  given  by  Gunning  and  Pearson  to 
Bishop  Morley,  who  pubUshed  it  in  defence  of  himself 
in  the  following  year,  when  he  had  silenced  Baxter. 
The  account  was  also  published,  where  it  has  been 
more  generally  read,  in  good  Izaak  Walton's  Life  of 
Sanderson,  with  a  little  postscript  of  information  which 
he  had  received  from  Pearson.  Baxter  has  left  us 
a  more  diffuse  report  in  his  Autobiography,  but  nei- 
ther his  statement  nor  comment  add  any  circumstance 
which  is  materially  different.  The  account  of  Gunning 
and  Pearson  is  as  follows  : — 

"  This  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  viz.,  That 
command  which  commands  an  act  in  itself  lawful,  and 
no  other  act  or  circumstance  unlawful,  is  not  sinful  : 

*'Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  for  two  reasons,  which  he 
gave  in  with  his  own  hand  in  writing  thus  :  one  is, 
Because  that  may  be  a  sin  per  accidens,  which  is  not 
80  by  itself,  and  may  be  unlawfully  commanded, 
though  that  accident  be  not  in  the  command.  The 
other  is,  that  it  may  he  commanded  under  an  unjust 
penalty. 

"  Again,  this  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  That 
command  which  commandeth  an  act  in  itself  lawful, 
and  no  other  act  whereby  an  unjust  penalty  is  enjoined, 
nor  any  circumstance  whence  j:»er  accidens  any  sin  is 
consequent,  which  the  comramander  ought  to  provide 
against,  is  not  sinful : 

"Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  for  this  reason,  given  in 
with  his  own  hand  in  writing  thus :  Because  the  first 
act  commanded  may  be  per  accidens  unlawful,  and 
be  commanded  by  an  unjust  penalty,  though  no  other 
act  or  circumstance   commanded  be  such. 

"  Again  this  proposition  being  brought  by  us,  That 
command,  which  commandeth  an  act  in  itself  lawful, 
and    no  other  act  whereby  any  unjust  penalty  is  en- 


PEARSON.  19 

joined,  nor  any  circumstance,  whence  directly  or 
per  accidens  any  sin  is  consequent,  which  the  com- 
mander ought  to  provide  against,  hath  in  it  all  things 
requisite  to  the  lawfulness  of  a  command,  and  particu- 
larly cannot  be  guilty  of  commanding  an  act  per  accidens 
unlawful,  nor  of  commanding  an  act  under  an  unjust 
penalty : 

"  Mr.  Baxter  denied  it  upon  the  same  reasons. 

"  Peter  Gunning. 

"John  Pearson." 
**  Baxter's  talent,"  says  Collier,  in  reference  to  this 
passage,  "lay  in  retiring  to  foreign  distinctions,  and 
misapplications  of  the  rules  of  logic.  Whether  this 
involving  the  argument  in  mist,  was  art,  or  infirmity, 
is  hard  to  determine  :  however,  let  the  most  charitable 
construction  pass."  It  is  a  good  judgment  on  the  case : 
but  meantime  it  is  not  surprising  if  Bishop  Morley 
a  man  of  some  spirit,  but  sincere  and  benevolent, 
charged  Baxter  with  holding  principles  destructive  of 
all  authority,  human  and  divine ;  nor  if  Bishop 
Sanderson,  whose  mildness  and  patience  are  well 
attested,  thought  the  genius  of  logic,  to  whom  in  his 
youth  he  had  paid  great  honour,  somewhat  ill-used 
by  treatment  much  more  sophistical  than  subtle. 
It  seems  also  that  Pearson  himself,  when  he  related 
to  Izaak  Walton  the  incident  of  which  Baxter  rather 
bitterly  complains,  did  not  feel  quite  so  much  respect 
for  his  opponent  in  the  disputation,  as  Baxter  pro- 
fesses towards  Pearson. 

"  The  Bishop  of  Chester,"  says  Walton,  "  told  me, 
that  one  of  the  dissenters,  whom  I  could,  but  forbear 
to  name," — no  question,  Baxter  is  meant, — "  appeared 
to  Dr.  Sanderson  to  be  so  bold,  so  troublesome,  so 
illogical  in  the  dispute,  as  forced  patient  Dr.  Sander- 
son to  say  with  an  unusual  earnestness,  that  he  had 
never  met  a  man  of  more  pertinacious  confidence,  and 
less  abilities,  in  all  his  conversation." 


20  PEARSON. 

On  the  contrary,  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that,  of 
all  the  phalanx  of  episcopal  divines,  Pearson  is  the 
only  one,  of  whom  Baxter  speaks  with  entire  respect ; 
and  his  testimony  would  be  very  honourable  to  him, 
were  it  not  for  the  groundless  insinuations  with  w^hich 
it  is  accompanied,  that  the  equanimity  with  which  he 
commends  was  a  proof  of  his  indifference  to  the  cause 
in  which  he  was  engaged  : — 

•' Dr.  Pierson  and  Dr.  Gunning,"  says  Baxter,  "did 
all  their  work,  but  with  great  difference  in  manner. 
Dr.  Pierson  was  their  true  logician  and  disputant ; 
without  whom,  as  far  as  I  could  discern,  we  should 
have  had  nothing  from  them  but  Dr.  Gunning's  pas- 
sionate invectives,  mixed  with  some  argumentations. 
He  disputed  accurately,  soberly,  and  calmly,  being  but 
once  in  any  passion,  breeding  in  us  a  great  respect  for 
him,  and  a  persuasion  that  if  he  had  been  independent, 
he  would  have  been  for  peace,  and  that  if  all  were  in 
his  power,  it  would  have  gone  well.  He  was  the 
strength  and  honour  of  that  cause,  which  we  doubted 
whether  he  heartily  maintained." 

Baxter  probably  penned  this  before  the  appearance 
of  the  "  VindicifB  Ignatianre;"  and  perhaps  it  shews  no 
more  than  a  wish  to  persuade  himself  that  his  most 
learned  opponent,  was  one  who  desired  more  liberty 
than  the  Church  allowed,  a  wish  to  grace  his  own 
cause  as  far  as  possible  with  such  a  name  ;  but  the 
surmise  is  contradicted  by  the  whole  tenor  of  Pearson's 
life,  by  the  character  of  bis  friends,  by  all  his  writings, 
and  not  least,  by  some  of  those  which  are  now  first  made 
public,  by  Archdeacon  Churton. 

In  the  Convocation  which  first  met  during  this  Con- 
ference, on  the  eighth  of  May,  1661,  there  were,  as 
Pearson  said  of  it,  while  it  was  in  prospect,  "  divers 
particular  concessions  to  be  made  for  the  satisfaction  of 
all  sober  minds;"  and  it  appears  from  the  imperfect 
journals  which  remain  of  their  meetings,   that  he  took 


PEAKSON.  SI 

a  prominent  part  in  them.  For  some  of  the  duties 
imposed  on  him,  his  excellent  Latin  style  was  likely  to 
have  pointed  out  his  fitness  ;  as  when  he  was  chosen 
to  present  the  prolocutor  of  the  Lower  House  to  the 
Upper  House,  and  afterwards,  with  Dr.  John  Earle, 
the  Latin  translator  of  the  "  Eikon  Basilike,"  to  superin- 
tend a  version  into  Latin  of  the  amended  book  of 
Common  Prayer.  But,  though  something  has  been 
claimed  for  different  distinguished  names  which  are 
found  'among  the  members  of  this  synod,  there  is 
very  little  evidence,  beyond  the  public  records,  to  shew 
what  part  of  the  amendments  and  additions  was  executed 
by  individual  divines. 

Dr.  D'Oyly,  in  his  Life  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  has 
published  an  important  extract  made  by  that  prelate 
from  the  Journal  of  the  Lower  House,  which  is  now 
lost ;  from  which  we  learn  that  Pearson  was  one  of  eight 
members  of  that  house  who  were  employed  in  drawing 
up  the  service  for  the  twenty-ninth  of  May,  and  one  of 
six  who  were  to  prepare  the  prayer  for  the  high  court  of 
parliament ;  and  when  they  met  again  in  the  winter,  he 
was  one  of  three,  to  whom  the  revision  of  all  the  additions 
and  amendments  was  committed,  in  order  to  its  being 
received  and  subscribed  by  the  members  of  both 
houses ;  which  was  done  on  the  twentieth  of  December, 
1661.  Thus  far  we  learn  from  the  journals  ;  and  the 
absence  of  all  private  memoirs  is  only  a  proof  of  the 
happy  unanimity  which  now  governed  their  proceedings. 

Pearson's  name  appears  again  in  the  journals  of  the 
Upper  House  in  reference  to  a  subject  comparatively  of 
minor  importance,  but  of  some  concern  to  the  interests 
of  learning, — a  proposal  to  prepare  one  general  Latin  and 
Greek  grammar  to  be  used  in  all  the  schools  of  England  ; 
which  proposal  was  occasionally  under  discussion  in  the 
sessions  of  1663  and  1664.  Pearson  presented  such  a 
grammar  to  the  Upper  House  on  the  fourth  of  May,  1664, 
when  it  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  seven  bishops ; 


n  PEARSON. 

but  from  that  time  no  further  notice  of  it  occurs,  and 
after  that  date  very  little  sjnodical  business  was  done. 

In  1661,  Pearson  was  appointed  Margaret  Professor 
of  Divinity,  where  he  delivered  those  lectures  which 
are  published  among  his  Minor  Theological  works.  In 
the  same  volumes  is  published  his  "Theological  Deter- 
minations." The  first  of  which  contains  an  admirable 
argument  on  the  apostolic  ordinance  of  episcopacy,  the 
dignity  of  which,  as  a  perpetual  distinct  order  in  the 
Christian  ministry,  he  vindicates  alike  from  the  errors 
which  have  had  their  rise  in  the  Papal  and  in  the 
Presbyterian  consistory.  "  For  nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain," says  Pearson,  "  than  that  all  diminution  of 
the  rights  of  episcopacy  had  its  source  in  the  papal 
usurpation  :  and  the  Pope  of  Rome  appears  to  me  in 
no  other  light,  than  as  an  individual  who  claims  to 
himself  all  the  authority  given  to  bishops  throughout 
the  whole  w^orld,  and  from  the  assumption  of  that 
authority  to  himself,  threatens  the  independence  of 
Christian  princes,  states,  and  churches.  Whatever  else 
relating  to  ceremonies  or  opinions  you  may  choose  with 
the  multitude  to  call  popish,  it  is  easy  to  shew  that 
it  prevails  as  much,  where  there  is  no  Pope,  or  where 
all  are  the  Pope's  enemies."  He  then  shews  how  some  of 
the  schoolmen,  considering  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
priesthood  to  reside  in  the  power  of  consecrating  the 
holy  eucharist,  first  taught  the  identity  of  orders  in 
bishops  and  presbyters. 

In  166:2,  Pearson  was  appointed  Master  of  Trinity, 
resigning  both  his  prebends  and  his  rectory.  In  1667, 
he  became  F.R.S.  In  1672,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Chester.  In  the  same  year  The  Vindicise  Epistolarum 
S.  Ignatii  were  published.  The  Introductory  Discourse, 
says  Archbishop  Churton,  divided  into  six  short  chap- 
ters, furnishes  an  account  of  the  rise,  progress,  and  state 
of  the  controversy  up  to  the  time  at  which  he  wrote,  the 
different  editions  both  of  the  interpolated  and  spurious 


PEARSON.  23 

Epistles,  and  the  doubts  and  perplexities  of  critics,  be- 
fore Ussher  in  1664  discovered  the  existence  of  two 
English  copies  of  the  shorter  Epistles  in  the  old  Latin 
version,  and  Isaac  Yossius  in  1646,  followed  up  his 
discovery  by  publishing  the  Greek  text  from  the  Floren- 
tine manuscript,  which  so  remarkably  agreed  with  it. 
This  event  had  changed  the  aspect  of  the  dispute. 
Andrew  Rivet,  a  respected  name  for  learning  among 
the  Dutch  Protestants,  and  the  eminent  Jesuit  critic, 
Petavius,  at  once  recognised  the  genuine  ancient  in  the 
Ignatius  of  Vossius  and  Ussher.  Salmasius  and  David 
Blondel  stood  on  their  old  ground  ;  but  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  while  Salmasius  allowed  the  supposed  impos- 
tor to  have  written  the  Epistles  under  the  reign  of  the 
Antonines,  Blondel  assigned  him  a  date  after  the  death  of 
Clement  of  Alexander,  about  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century.  These  critics  were  answered  briefly  by  Ussher, 
and  more  fully  by  Hammond  ;  and  a  short  pause  was 
made  in  the  controversy,  till  Daille  in  1666,  published 
his  treatise,  *'  De  Scriptis,  quae  sub  nominibus  Dionysii 
Areopagitae  et  Ignatii  circumferuntur,"  in  which  he  under- 
took to  prove,  that,  though  the  shorter  Epistles  and  the 
longer  were  the  work  of  different  hands,  neither  were 
written  by^Ignatius. 

The  great  celebrity,  which  the  name  of  this  remark, 
able  man  had  attained  both  in  England  and  on  the 
continent,  his  diligence  in  theological  research,  his 
shrewdness  of  remark  and  pointed  way  of  exposing 
and  exaggerating  fallacies,  his  success  in  argument  with 
Baronius  and  Perron  and  other  champions  on  the  Roman 
side,  and  on  the  other  hand  his  freedom  from  the  ex- 
treme Genevan  doctrines  of  the  preceding  age,  which 
liad  brought  him  into  disputes  with  Des  Marets  and 
other  zealous  contra-remonstrants, — all  combined  to 
make  his  appearance  in  the  controversy  an  important 
incident  to  both  parties.  Besides  which,  he  was  now  a 
veteran  in  the  service  of  literature,  having  entered  on 


91  PEARSON. 

his  seventy-second  year  when  he  made  his  formal  assault 
on  the  remains  of  Ignatius ;  though  he  had  before 
expressed  his  doubts  in  his  early  work  on  the  Use  of 
the  Fathers,  and  in  his  essay  "  De  Jejuniis  et  Quadra- 
gesima," had  declared  his  sentiments  to  be  unaltered 
by  Ussher's  discovery.  It  was  now  nearly  forty  years 
since  he  had  written  that  first  and  most  famous  of  his 
treatises,  "  De  I'Emploi  des  Peres," — a  treatise,  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  was  too  bold  and  striking  not  to  have 
had  a  powerful  effect  on  some  of  the  most  inquiring 
spirits  of  the  time.  Its  actual  influence  in  England 
may  have  been  over-rated,  but  was  not  inconsiderable. 
No  doubt  it  was  still  remembered  and  admired.  When 
Daille  therefore  came  forward  in  his  old  age  with  this 
elaborate  attempt  to  disprove  the  genuineness  of  all 
that  bore  the  name  of  the  apostolic  martyr,  it  was  a 
strong  proof  that  he  was  an  earnest  disbeliever  in  these 
writings,  and  a  plain  challenge  to  all  who  saw  cause 
to  trust  their  authenticity,  to  be  bold  in  their  defence. 

Daille's  view  differed  materially  from  that  of  Elondel 
and  Salmasius.  He  saw  the  improbability  or  inutility 
of  supposing  the  impostor  to  have  been  of  so  primitive  a 
date  as  the  middle  of  the  second  or  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century.  Forgeries  are  usually  the  work  of  an  age 
of  literary  ease  and  leisure,  and  do  not  so  easily  spring 
up  in  the  midst  of  persecution.  And  if  the  writer  had 
been  so  ancient,  under  whatever  name,  his  evidence  would 
have  been  of  some  weight  in  reference  to  the  doctrines 
and  practices  of  his  own  period.  He  therefore  resolved 
to  assign  him  a  date  near  the  time  of  Constantine,  to 
assert  that  Eusebius  was  first  taken  in  by  the  imposi- 
tion, and  that  his  error  was  followed  by  St.  Athanasius 
and  all  subsequent  writers.  There  was  however  a  serious 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  this  hypothesis,  since  it  had  been 
commonly  supposed  that  St.  Polycarp  and  St.  Irenseus 
had  referred  to  these  Epistles,  and,  besides  other  testi- 
monies less  express,  there  were  two  treatises  of  Origen, 


PEARSON.  J26 

which  quoted  two  sentences  from  the  Epistles  to  the 
Ephesians  and  Romans  severally,  as  they  were  yet  extant. 
Hence  it  became  necessary  to  extend  the  licence  of  scep- 
ticism, to  suspect  the  Epistle  of  Polycarp  of  a  partial 
interpolation,  to  question  whether  Irenaeus  did  not  speak 
of  some  traditional  saying  of  Ignatius  rather  than  of  his 
writings,  and  to  throw  doubts  on  the  genuineness  of  those 
works  of  Origen,  in  which  the  w^ords  of  the  Epistles  were 
contained.  Such  was  the  venturous  theory,  by  which  it 
was  attempted  to  set  aside  the  external  evidence  for  these 
primitive  records ;  to  whose  genuineness,  as  Pearson 
proved  by  a  long  array  of  authorities,  there  was  an  un- 
broken line  of  witnesses  in  every  age,  from  the  contem- 
poraries of  Ignatius  to  the  fifteenth  century. 

As  to  the  internal  evidence,  it  was  the  plan  of  Daille 
to  heap  together  objections  against  the  interpolated  and 
spurious  Epistle  with  those  that  concerned  the  genuine  ; 
calculating  probably,  that  a  greater  impression  would  be 
made  on  the  reader,  who  was  not  always  likely  to  ask 
whether  the  critical  flail  was  employed  upon  the  chaff 
or  upon  the  pure  grain,  and  that  it  would  give  more 
trouble  to  an  answerer  to  be  obliged  to  use  the  winnowing 
fan.  His  arguments  were  directed  chiefly  to  four  distinct 
points  :  first,  to  prove  that  there  were  allusions  to  facts 
or  persons  of  later  date  than  Ignatius  ;  secondly,  that  the 
doctrine  of  certain  passages,  especially  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  was  unsound  and  unfit  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  apostolic  martyr  :  thirdly,  that  there  were  indica- 
tions of  a  subsequent  age  in  the  style  and  phraseology  ; 
fourthly,  that  which  has  probably  been  at  the  root  of  all 
critical  suspicions  on  this  subject,  that  there  was  much 
too  distinct  an  enumeration  of  the  three  holy  orders  of 
the  Christian  ministry  for  a  writer  so  immediately  follow- 
ing the  Apostles. 

Against  both  these  classes  of  objection  the  body  of 
Pearson's  work  was  now  directed.  It  was  divided  into 
two   parts  of  nearly  equal  length,  the   first  embracing 

VOL.    VIII.  D 


26  PEARSON. 

the  defence  of  the  external,  the  latter  of  the  internal 
evidence.  Not  only  the  principal  arguments  of  Daille, 
as  they  directly  affect  Ignatius,  but  many  discursive 
critical  inquiries  illustrating  the  main  question,  of  the 
greatest  interest  to  the  student  of  Christian  antiquity, 
are  discussed  in  either  part  of  the  Vindicise ;  and  few 
have  risen  from  the  perusal  without  a  conviction,  that 
the  learned  vindicator,  after  a  most  patient  sifting  of 
separate  objections,  has  left  his  opponent  without  one 
position  which  is  any  longer  defensible. 

Indeed  the  main  difficulty  had  been  in  a  great  degree 
removed,    when   the   text   of  the   shorter  Epistles  was 
recovered.     The  previous  doubts  had  chiefly  arisen  from 
the  want  of  a  test  to  distinguish  between  what  had  the 
appearance  of  interpolation  and  the  true  antiquity ;  for 
that   there   were   portions   from   the    very   hand  of   St. 
Ignatius,  the  general  assent  of  candid  critics  had  allowed. 
It  was  no  unusual  or  unprecedented  case,  that  a  later 
writer  should  have  undertaken  to  accommodate  the  style 
of  an   ancient  author  to   his  own  time,  to  paraphrase 
what  seemed  to  him  brief  and  obscure,  and  otherwise 
to  enlarge  and  adapt  the  old  record  to  his  own  purposes. 
But  there  was  this  peculiarity  about  the   interpolator  of 
Ignatius,  that  no  principle  could  be  traced  in  his  altera- 
tions, no  design  was  avowed,  none  appeared  to  be  fol- 
lowed ;  it  was  nothing  but  a  sophistical  display  of  his 
powers   of  amplification,  or  some  poor  conceit  that  he 
could  improve  upon  the  matter  and  form  of  the  original. 
But  when  a  copy  was  found  closely  agreeing  with  the 
extracts    furnished   by  Eusebius,  Theodoret,   and  other 
Greek   fathers,   with   whom   the   interpolator's  portions 
were  at  plain  variance,  the  fact  itself  was  sufficient  to 
decide  the  question.      There   have  indeed  been  a  few 
persons  before  and  since  Pearson  wrote,  who  singularly 
enough  have  shown  an  inclination  to  defend  the  inte- 
grity of  the  interpolated  Epistles ;  such  as  the  learned 
ritualist,    Morinus,    and    our  countryman,   the   wrong- 


PEARSON.  27 

headed  Whiston;  and  it  is  not  much  to  the  credit  of 
Mosheim  that,  after  saying  what  he  can  to  perplex  the 
question,  he  ends  by  leaning  to  the  same  side.  But  the 
common  sense  of  all  good  critics  since  the  appearance 
of  the  Vindiciae,  is  well  expressed  by  a  late  worthy 
Oxford  scholar,  whose  later  performances  did  not  equal 
his  earlier  promise :  "  The  encomium  which  Pearson 
has  given  to  Eusebius  may  with  the  utmost  propriety 
be  applied  to  himself:  Ego  Eusebium  tanta  diligentia 
tantoque  judicio  in  examinandis  ChristianoiTim  pri- 
maevae  antiquitatis  scriptis,  fuisse  contendo,  ut  nemo 
unquam  de  ejus  fide,  aut  de  scriptis,  quae  ille  pro  indu- 
bitatis  habuerit,  postea  dubitaverit." 

Dr.  Pearson  held  the  Bishopric  of  Chester  for  thirteen 
years,  but  was  disqualified  from  all  public  ser^^ice  by 
his  infirmities,  and  especially  by  a  total  loss  of  memory, 
for  some  years  before  his  death,  which  took  place  at 
Chester,  on  the  IGth  July,  1686,  in  the  seventy-fifth 
year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  author  of  a  Preface  to 
The  Golden  Remains  of  the  ever-memorable  Mr.  John 
Hales,  of  Eton  College,  1660,  8vo;  No  Necessity  of 
Reformation  of  the  public  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England,  &c.,  a  Sermon ;  a  Sermon  preached  before  the 
king,  on  Eccles.  vii.  14,  and  published  by  his  majesty's 
command;  the  learned  Preface,  (Praefatio  Paraenetica,) 
to  Field's  edition  of  The  Septuagint,  1665,  l^mo;  and 
of  Annales  Cyprianici,  sive  tredecim  Annomm,  quibus 
S.  Cyprianus  inter  Christianos  versatus  est,  Historia 
Chronologica,  printed  with  Bishop  Fell's  edition  of  the 
works  of  that  father,  1 682,  fol.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Critici  Sacri ;  and  from  his  MSS.  were 
published,  after  his  death,  V.  CI.  Joannis  Pearsonii, 
S.  T.  P.  Cestriensis  nuper  Episcopi,  Opera  Posthuma 
Chronologica,  &c.  Singula  praelo  tradidit ;  edenda  curavit 
et  Dissertationis  novis  Additionibus  auxit  H.  Dodwellus, 
&c„  1668,  4to. 

In  1844,  the  minor  Theological  Works  of  Bishop  Pear- 


28  PECKHAM. 

son,  first  collected,  with  a  Memoir  of  the  author,  notes, 
and  index,  were  pubUshed  at  the  Universitj-press  at 
Oxford,  by  the  venerable  Archdeacon  Churton,  from 
which  memoir  this  article  is  an  abbreviation. 


PECKHAM,    JOHN. 

John  Peckham  was  born  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  about 
1Q40,  and  was  educated  in  the  monastery  of  Lewes. 
Thence  he  was  sent  to  Oxford  and  became  a  Minorite 
friar.  He  was  first  professor  of  Divinity,  and  afterwards 
provincial  of  his  order  in  England.  He  twice  visited 
Paris,  and  there  delivered  lectures  in  theology.  From 
thence  he  went  to  Lyons,  where  he  obtained  a  canonry 
in  the  cathedral  which,  according  to  Carr  and  Godwin, 
was  held  with  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury  for  two 
centuries  after.  It  was  convenient  as  a  resting-place 
between  Canterbury  and  Rome,  and  the  popes  were 
glad  to  facilitate  the  intercourse  by  which  they  enslaved 
our  Church.  On  going  to  Rome,  he  was  appointed  by 
the  pope  auditor  or  chief-judge  of  the  palace,  or  as  some 
say,  palatine-lecturer  or  reader. 

On  the  vacancy  of  the  See  of  Canterbury,  in  1278, 
the  Chapter  of  Canterbury  elected  Thomas  Burnell, 
Bishop  of  Bath,  to  the  vacant  see.  Nevertheless,  though 
this  was  a  unanimous  election,  the  Pope  of  Rome,  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  assumed  power,  set  the  election 
aside  and  gave  the  see  to  Peckham.  The  pope  claimed 
the  power  because  the  See  of  Canterbury  was  vacated 
by  his  advancing  Kilwardby  to  the  cardinalate,  making 
him  Bishop  of  Porto.  To  the  disgrace  of  England,  it 
submitted  to  this  act  of  aggression  on  the  part  of  a 
foreign  prelate.  The  worst  heresies  of  medievalism  were 
now  prevalent,  and  Friar  Peckham  came  to  England 
destined  to  carry  to  the  extreme  the  superstitions  in 
fashion  at  Rome.     To  shew  the  spirit  of  the  fiiar,  with 


PECKHAM.  29[- 

reference  to  certain  wise  regulations  which  had  been 
made  to  stay  the  progress  of  Popery,  we  will  present 
the  reader  with  the  substance  of  a  letter,  written  by 
him  to  the  king,  Edward  I.,  in  1281  : — "He  professes 
obedience,  and  owns  his  great  obligations  to  the  king, 
but  declares  that  he  could  not  be  bound  to  disobey  laws 
which  subsisted  by  a  divine  authority  by  any  human 
laws  or  oaths  :  he  observes  an  old  rivalry  between  the 
ecclesiastical  and  secular  powers;  and  speaks  of  the 
Churches  being  oppressed  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  the 
popes,  the  statutes  of  the  councils,  and  the  sanctions 
of  orthodox  fathers,  in  which  there,  says  he,  is  the 
supreme  authority,  the  supreme  truth,  the  supreme 
sanctity  (he  forgot  the  Holy  Scriptures,)  and  no  end  can 
be  put  to  disputes,  unless  we  can  submit  our  sublimity 
to  these  three  great  laws  :  for  out  of  these  the  canons 
(as  he  adds,  meaning  the  canon  law)  are  collected. 
He  undertakes  to  prove  the  authority  of  these  from 
Matt.  xvi.  18;  Deut.  xvii.  9—11,  18,  19;  Matt.  x.  SO; 
xviii,  19,  20,  and  then  goes  on  in  this  manner.  Con- 
stantine.  King  of  England,  and  emperor  of  the  world, 
granted  all  that  we  ask,  and  particularly,  that  clerks 
should  be  judged  by  their  prelates  only.  Wihtred, 
King  of  Kent,  granted  the  same,  as  is  plain  from  the 
council  held  by  Archbishop  Brithwald,  a.d.  794.  This 
Knute  declared  in  his  laws.  King  Edward  promised  to 
keep  the  laws  of  Knute ;  and  King  William,  to  whom 
St.  Edward  gave  the  kingdom,  granted  that  the  same" 
should  be  observed.  He  intimates,  that  these  oppressions 
began  under  King  Henry  I.,  but  proceeded  to  a  still 
greater  height  under  King  Henry  II.  He  gives  the 
epithet  damnable  to  the  Articles  [of  Clarendon]  because 
Archbishop  Thomas  suffered  banishment  and  death  for 
not  subscribing  them.  He  tells  the  king,  he  was  awed 
by  his  conscience  to  write  this  letter,  that  no  oath  could 
bind  against  the  liberties  of  the  Church;  and  further 
says  he,  we  absolve  you  from  any  oath,  that  can  any 
D  3 


30  PECKHAM. 

ways  incite  you  against  the  Church.  He  begs  of  the 
king  to  learn  this  lesson,  for  which  so  many  of  the  holy 
fathers,  and  the  last  but  one  [of  my  predecessors]  the 
Lord  Boniface,  your  mother's  uncle,  did  so  earnestly 
labour,  and  to  which  we  believe  you  inclined,  unless 
evil  counsellors  deceive  you.  Dated  from  Lambeth, 
4  Nones  of  November,  1281." 

The  archbishop  was  consecrated  in  1278,  upon  his 
agreeing  to  pay  the  pope  4000  marks,  which  bribe  he 
was  so  slow  to  pay  after  consecration,  that  the  pope  excom- 
municated him.  Such  was  medieval  corruption.  The 
archbishop  took  the  University  of  Oxford  under  his 
patronage,  and  the  following  constitution  will  be  read 
with  interest. 

"A  Protection  of  the  Liberties  of  the  Scholars  at  Ox- 
ford," by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: — Friar  John,  by 
divine  miseration  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  primate  of 
all  England,  to  his  beloved  in  Christ  the  chancellor,  and 
university  of  masters  and  scholars  at  Oxford  in  the 
diocese  of  Lincoln,  health,  grace,  and  benediction.  We 
show  all  possible  favour  to  them  who  are  seeking  the 
pearl  of  knowledge  in  the  field  of  scholastic  discipline, 
and  willingly  grant  them  what  may  advance  their  tran- 
quillity by  taking  away  the  occasion  of  their  grievances. 
Therefore  moved  by  devout  prayers,  we  receive  under  our 
protection  your  persons,  together  with  all  the  goods 
belonging  to  you  all,  which  you  at  present  do  by  fair 
means  possess,  or  which  ye  shall  hereafter  by  God's 
help  justly  get.  But  especially  we  with  the  unanimous 
express  consent  of  our  brethren,  do  by  the  authority  of 
these  presents,  and  by  the  patronage  of  this  present 
writing  confirm  to  you,  and  to  your  successors  by  you, 
the  liberties  and  immunities  duly  granted  you  by  bishops, 
kings,  great  men,  and  other  faithful  people  of  Christ, 
according  as  ye  do  now  justly  and  fairly  enjoy  them. 
Further,  because  we  are  given  to  understand,  that  some 
men  regardless  of  their  own  salvation,  when  they  have 


PECKHAM.  31 

been  laid  under  a  sentence  of  suspension,  or  excommuni- 
cation for  their  offences  committed  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  by  the  chancellor  of  the  university,  or  by  inferior 
judges  deputed  by  him,  or  by  the  said  chancellor  together 
with  the  whole  university  of  regents  only,  and  sometimes 
both  of  regents  and  non-regents,  they  withdraw  from 
you  and  your  jurisdiction  in  contempt  of  the  keys  of 
the  Church ;  now  to  the  intent  that  the  said  sentences 
may  have  their  full  force  and  strength,  we  with  the 
express  unanimous  consent  of  our  brethren,  do  grant 
to  you  by  the  tenour  of  these  presents,  that  the  said 
sentences,  be  put  in  full  execution  within  our  province 
by  ourselves,  our  brethren,  and  their  officials,  as  often 
as  we,  or  our  brethren  are  lawfully  required  by  you  in 
this  respect.  And  being  willing  further  to  make  a  more 
plentiful  provision  for  your  tranquillity,  that  your  com- 
munity for  the  future  may  be  conducted  in  prosperity 
and  peace,  we  grant  to  you,  and  with  the  express  unani- 
mous consent  of  our  brethren,  we  ordain  and  enact, 
that  if  any  clerks  beneficed  in  our  province  be  found  in 
arms  by  night  or  by  day,  to  the  disturbance  of  your 
peace,  or  by  any  other  means  interrupting  the  tran- 
quillity of  the  university,  and  are  lawfully  and  duly 
convicted  hereof,  or  do  presumptively  confess  it  by  their 
running  away,  that  their  benefices  be  sequestered  in  the 
hands  of  their  prelates  for  three  years  upon  an  informa- 
tion made  to  the  bishops  by  the  chancellor  under  the 
common  seal  of  the  university;  and  that  lawful  satis- 
faction be  made  to  him,  or  them  that  have  been  hurt 
by  the  party  so  convicted,  confessing,  or  running  away, 
out  of  the  fruits  of  such  benefices  in  the  meantime  to 
be  received.  But  if  they  are  unbeneficed,  let  them  for 
five  years  be  esteemed  incapable  of  accepting  any  eccle- 
siastical benefice ;  unless  in  the  meantime  they  make 
competent  satisfaction  to  them  whom  they  have  hurt, 
and  have  by  merit  recovered  the  grace  of  the  university, 
with  a  saving  to  their  reputation  after  satisfaction  made. 


52  PECKHAM. 

In  testimony  of  all  which  our  seal,  together  with  the 
seals  of  our  brethren  here  present,  is  appendant  to  this 
writing  dated  in  our  council  at  Reading,  the  day  before 
the  Calends  of  August,  in  the  year  of  Grace,  1279, — 
Cantuar.  Lincoln.  Sarum.  Winton.  Exon.  Cicestern. 
Wygorn.  Bathon.  Landaven.  Herefordens.  Norwycen. 
Bangoren.    Rofiens." 

In  July,  1279,  the  archbishop  held  a  synod  at  Read- 
ing, to  force  upon  the  Church  of  England  popish  super- 
stitions and  papal  abuses.  The  constitutions  of  Othobon, 
made  in  the  council  of  London,  1268,  having  been  read, 
the  twelve  following  constitutions  were  published  : — 

1.  Renews  the  twenty-ninth  constitution  of  Othobon 
against  pluralities ;  and  directs  bishops  to  cause  a  re- 
gister to  be  kept  of  all  incumbents  in  their  dioceses, 
with  all  particulars  relating  to  them  and  their  livings. 

2.  Relates  to  commendaries,  and  declares  that  such 
as  are  held  otherwise  than  the  constitution  of  Gregory, 
made  in  the  council  of  Lyons,  1273,  permits,  to  be 
vacant. 

B.  Orders  all  priests,  on  the  Sunday  after  every  rural 
chapter,  to  explain  to  the  people  the  sentences  of  excom- 
munication decreed  by  the  council  of  Oxford  in  1222; 
and  to  publish  four  times  in  each  year  the  constitutions 
of  Othobon  concerning  Baptism  at  Easter  and  Pentecost, 
and  that  concerning  concubinaries  at  the  four  principal 
rural  chapters,  the  laity  being  first  dismissed. 

4.  Orders  that  children  born  within  eight  days  of 
Pentecost  and  Easter  shall  be  reserved  to  be  baptised 
at  these  times ;  but  that  children  born  at  other  times 
shall  be  baptised  at  once,  for  fear  of  sudden  death. 

5.  Orders  the  eighth  constitution  of  Othobon  (1268) 
against  concubinary  priests  to  be  read  openly  in  the  four 
principal  rural  chapters,  and  declares  that  such  reading 
shall  be  taken  as  a  monition.  If  the  dean  or  his  deputy 
neglect  this,  he  is  directed  to  fast  every  Friday  on  bread 
and  water  until  the  next  chapter. 


PECKHAM.  33 

6.  Relates  to  the  chrism  :  orders  that  what  remains  of 
the  old  chrism  shall  be  burnt  when  the  new  is  consecra- 
ted :  directs  that  priests  shall  be  bound  to  fetch  the 
chrism  for  their  Churches  every  year  from  their  bishops 
before  Easter  :  forbids  to  use  any  other  than  the  new 
chrism,  under  the  heaviest  penalties. 

7.  Orders  that  the  consecrated  host  be  kept  in  a  fair 
pyx,  within  a  tabernacle :  that  a  fresh  host  be  consecrated 
every  Lord's  day;  that  it  be  carried  to  the  sick  by  a  priest 
in  surplice  and  stole,  a  lanthorn  being  carried  before,  and 
a  bell  sounded,  that  the  people  may  "  make  humble 
adoration  wheresoever  the  King  of  Glory  is  carried 
under  the  cover  of  bread." 

8.  Declares  the  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead  to  be 
"  holy  and  wholesome  ;"  and  ordains  that  upon  the  death 
of  any  bishop  of  the  province  of  Canterbury,  his  survi- 
ving brethren  shall  perform  a  solemn  office  for  the  dead, 
both  singly  in  their  chapels,  and  together,  when  called  to 
assemble  in  council  or  otherwise,  after  the  death  of  the 
said  bishop ;  orders  further,  every  priest  to  say  one  mass 
for  the  soul  of  his  deceased  diocesan,  and  intreats  all 
exempt  religious  priests  and  seculars  to  do  likewise. 

9.  Relates  to  the  preaching  of  indulgences,  and  orders 
caution  in  so  doing,  "lest  the  keys  of  the  Church  be 
despised." 

10.  Forbids  to  set  free,  or  admit  to  purgation,  on  slight 
grounds,  clerks  who  having  been  put  into  prison  for  their 
crimes,  are  delivered  to  the  Church  as  convicts. 

11.  Enjoins  that  care  be  taken  to  preserve  the  chastity 
of  friars  and  nuns :  forbids  them  to  sojourn  long  in  the 
houses  of  their  parents  and  friends. 

12.  Forbids  parishioners  to  dispose  of  the  grass,  trees, 
or  roots,  growing  in  consecrated  ground  ;  leaves  such  pro- 
duce at  the  disposal  of  the  rectors  :  forbids  the  latter, 
without  sufficient  cause,  to  spoil  or  grub  up  such  trees 
as  are  an  ornament  to  the  churchyards  and  places  there- 
abouts. 


U  PECKHAM. 

Then  follows  (in  some  copies)  an  injunction  that  the 
clergy  of  each  diocese  should  send  at  least  two  deputies 
to  the  next  congregation,  to  treat  with  the  bishops  for 
the  common  interests  of  the  Church  of  England.  This 
injunction,  however,  is  by  some  persons  said  to  be  not 
genuine. 

But  the  most  important  council  in  Peckham's  episco- 
pate was  held  on  the  llth  of  October,  1281,  at  Lambeth, 
the  Canons  of  which  throw  much  light  on  the  very 
depressed  state  of  religion  in  the  middle  ages.  In  this 
council  the  acts  of  the  council  of  Lyons,  1274,  the 
constitutions  of  the  council  of  London,  1268,  and  those 
of  the  preceding  council  of  Lambeth,  1261,  were  con- 
firmed and  twenty-seven  fresh  Canons  were  published. 

The  first  Canon  runs  thus : — "  The  Most  High  hath 
created  a  medicine  for  the  body  of  man,  which  was  taken 
out  of  the  earth,  reposited  in  seven  vessels,  that  is,  in 
the  seven  sacraments  of  the  Church  which  are  handled 
and  dispensed  with  little  reverence  and  diligence,  as  our 
own  eyes  inform  us.  Here  then  let  us  begin  our  correc- 
tion, and  especially  in  the  sacrament  of  our  Lord's 
Body,  which  is  a  sacrament,  and  a  sacrifice  of  a  sacra- 
ment, sanctifying  those  who  eat  it;  and  a  sacrifice, 
which  by  its  oblation  is  profitable  for  all  in  whose  behalf 
it  is  made,  as  well  the  living  as  the  dead.  By  daily 
scandals  we  find,  that  there  are  many  priests  of  the 
Lord  in  number,  few  in  merit.  We  chiefly  lament  this 
among  their  damnable  neglects,  that  they  are  irreverent 
in  respect  to  this  sacrament;  that  they  consecrate  it 
with  accursed  tongues,  reposit,  and  keep  it  with  con- 
tempt ;  and  neglect  to  change  it  so  long,  that  the  con- 
taining species  is  corrupted ;  so  that  the  Author  of  our 
salvation,  Who  gave  Himself  for  a  viaticum  to  His  Church, 
is  justly  offended  with  such  irreverence ;  we  ordain  as  a 
remedy  to  this  mischief,  that  every  priest  that  hath  not 
a  canonical  excuse,  do  consecrate  once  every  week  at 
least,  and  that  a  tabernacle,    &c.,  as  in  the  seventh  of 


PECKHAM.  35 

this  archbishop's  constitutions  at  Reading,  to  the  word 
Lord's  day.  Let  the  bells  be  tolled  at  the  elevation  of 
the  body  of  Christ,  that  the  people  who  have  not  leisure 
daily  to  be  present  at  mass,  may,  wherever  they  are, 
in  houses,  or  fields,  bow  their  knees  in  order  to  the 
having  the  indulgences  granted  by  many  bishops.  And 
let  priests  who  are  negligent  in  keeping  the  Eucharist, 
&c.,  as  in  constitution  the  seventh  at  Reading,  to  the 
end.  Let  priests  also  take  care  when  they  give  the 
holy  communion  at  Easter,  or  at  any  other  time  to 
the  simple,  diligently  to  instruct  them  that  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  our  Lord  is  given  them  at  once  under 
the  species  of  bread;  nay  the  whole  living  and  true 
Christ,  Who  is  entirely  under  the  species  of  the  Sacra- 
ment:  and  let  them  at  the  same  time  instruct  them, 
that  what  at  the  same  time  is  given  them  to  drink  is 
not  the  Sacrament,  but  mere  wine,  to  be  drunk  for  the 
more  easy  swallowing  of  the  Sacrament  which  they 
have  taken.  For  it  is  allowed  in  such  small  churches 
to  none  but  them  that  celebrate,  to  receive  the  Blood 
under  the  species  of  consecrated  wine.  Let  them  also 
direct  them  not  overmuch  to  grind  the  Sacrament  with 
their  teeth,  but  to  swallow  it  entirely  after  they  have 
a  little  chewed  it ;  lest  it  happen  that  some  small  par- 
ticle stick  between  their  teeth,  or  somewhere  else.  Let 
parish  priests  beware  that  they  give  not  the  body  of  the 
Lord  to  any  that  have  not  evidence  of  their  having 
confessed  by  testimonial,  or  other  credible  assurance  : 
and  we  lay  the  stress  of  the  proof  upon  the  oath  of 
him  that  is  to  receive  the  Sacrament,  who  is  to  take 
care  of  what  concerns  his  salvation.  Let  no  priest 
give  the  Communion  to  the  parishioners  of  another 
priest  without  his  manifest  licence.  We  extend  not 
this  ordinance  to  travellers,  or  persons  in  danger,  or  in 
case  of  necessity. 

Transubstantiation  was  now  generally  received,  though 
in  fact  a  novelty,  (see  Paschasim  Radbert,)  and  according 


36  PECKHAM. 

to  the  theory  of  Transubstantiation,  communion  in  one 
kind  would  naturally  be  deemed  complete.  But  the 
withdrawal  of  the  cup  was  too  serious  an  innovation  to 
be  otherwise  that  cautiously  approached  ;  hence  the  cau- 
tion of  the  Canon  : — 

2.  Relates  to  masses  for  the  dead. 

3.  Runs  thus :  We  find  some  have  transgressed  as 
to  the  sacrament  of  Baptism.  For  whereas  it  is  allowed 
to  laymen,  or  women  to  baptize  children  in  case  of 
inevitable  necessity,  and  such  baptism  is  evidently  suffi- 
cient to  salvation,  if  the  due  form  be  observed;  and 
they  who  have  been  so  baptized  ought  not  to  be  baptized 
again  ;  and  yet  some  foolish  priests  re-baptize  them ; 
which  is  an  indignity  to  the  sacrament ;  now  we  firmly 
forbid  this  for  the  future.  But  let  the  Exorcisms,  and 
Catechisms  be  used  over  children  so  baptized,  in  re- 
verence to  the  ordinances  of  the  Church.  But  the 
form  of  the  sacrament  in  the  vulgar  tongue  consists 
not  only  in  the  signs,  but  in  the  series  of  the  words, 
as  it  was  instituted  by  God ;  inasmuch  as  Christ  the 
Lord  hath  conferred  a  regenerative  power  to  those  words 
80  arranged  as  they  are  in  the  Latin  tongue  :  Let  then  the 
baptizers  say  thus : — "  I  christen  thee  in  the  Name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  And  if 
the  priest  doubt  whether  the  child  was  baptized  in  due 
form,  let  him  observe  the  manner  in  the  Decretal,  to- 
gether with  the  Exorcisms,  and  Catechism,  saying,  "  If 
thou  art  baptized,  I  do  not  rebaptize  thee,  if  thou  art 
not  baptized,  I  baptize  thee  in  the  name  of,  &c."  Let 
priests  take  care  that  names,  which  carry  a  lascivious 
sound  be  not  given  to  children  at  their  baptism,  espe- 
cially to  those  of  the  female  sex.  If  they  be,  let  them  be 
altered  by  the  bishops  at  confirmation. 

4.  Denies  communion  to  persons  not  confirmed. 

5.  Forbids  to  confer  on  any,  holy  orders,  i.e.,  those  of 
sub-deacon,  deacon,  and  priest,  at  the  same  time  with 
the  four  lesser  orders,  i.e.,  the  ostiary,   the  lector,   the 


PECKHAM.  37 

exorcist,  and  the  acolyth ;  and  desires  that,  when  it 
may  be,  the  lesser  orders  shall  not  be  received  at  one 
and  the  same  time. 

6.  Denies  absolution  to  hardened  sinners,  while  they 
continue  in  sin.  Forbids  under  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion any  one  to  hear  confessions  without  licence  from 
the  bishop. 

7.  Orders  public  penance  for  notorious  sins,  reserves 
the  absolution  of  wilful  murder  to  the  bishop  only.  In 
both  of  these  canons  complaint  is  made  of  the  general 
ignorance  or  profligacy  of  the  clergy. 

8.  Directs  that  in  each  deanery  there  shall  be  a 
general  confessor  for  the  clergy. 

9.  Observing  that  the  ignorance  of  the  priests  plunges 
the  people  into  error,  and  that  the  stupidness  of  clerks 
who  are  commanded  to  instruct  the  faithful  in  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  does  rather  mislead  than  teach  them,  directs 
the  clergy  to  explain  four  times  in  the  year,  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  the  creed,  the  ten  commandments,  the 
two  evangelical  precepts,  the  seven  works  of  mercy, 
the  seven  deadly  sins,  the  seven  cardinal  virtues,  and 
the  seven  sacraments.  Then  follows  a  brief  explanation 
of  them  all. 

10.  Orders  the  publication  of  Archbishop  Peckham's 
sentences  of  excommunication. 

IL  Orders  rectors  to  exercise  hospitality. 

12.  Ptelates  to  certificates  given  by  rural  deans. 

13.  Is  directed  against  the  fraudulent  methods  too 
prevalent,  which  were  employed  to  get  possession  of 
benefices  during  the  absence  of  their  possessors. 

14.  Prelates  to  the  same,  shewing  the  extreme  corrup- 
tion of  the  clergy. 

15.  Renew^s  the  16th  canon  of  Langton  at  Oxford, 
1222,  against  farming  churches. 

16.  Orders  all  houses  of  Augustines  to  assemble  toge- 
ther in  the  general  chapter. 

17.  Enormous  lust  is  so  prevailing,  that  some  without 

VOL.  VIII.  E 


38  PECKHAM. 

any  regard  to  the  laws  and  canons  published  to  excite 
the  chastity  of  nuns,  commit  incest,  and  sacrilege  with 
them  ;  for  remedy  whereof  we  lay  all  clergymen  and 
laymen  who  practise  such  filthiness  under  sentence  of 
the  greater  excommunication ;  resersang  the  power  of 
absolving  them  to  the  persons  of  the  bishops  only, 
except  at  the  point  of  deaih,  at  which  time  any  priest 
may  absolve  them ;  uj)on  condition  that  if  they  recover, 
they  do  within  three  months  make  confession  to  their 
proper  bishops,  or  in  the  vacancy  of  the  see,  to  the 
guardian  of  the  spiritualities,  or  the  Dean  of  the  Cathe- 
dral Church,  under  pain  of  anathema. 

18.  Many  nuns,  like  Dinah,  delighting  in  an  ill  habit 
of  wandering,  frequently  fall  into  a  like,  or  greater 
scandal.  Now  we  consulting  their  salvation  rather  than 
their  pleasure,  to  provide  against  this  danger,  forbid 
any  one  of  them  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
stay  even  in  company  wdth  a  sister  nun,  much  less 
without  it,  in  the  house  of  her  parents,  or  relations, 
much  less  of  others,  of  how  great  estate,  dignity,  or 
sanctity  soever  they  be,  above  three  natural  days  for  the 
sake  of  diversion ;  nor  above  six  days  upon  any  occasion 
whatsoever,  except  sickness ;  unless  the  bishops  for  some 
necessary  cause  shall  sometimes  please  to  have  it  other- 
wise, whose  consciences  we  onerate  in  this  point  in 
respect  to  the  tremendous  judgment.  We  extend  not 
this  to  the  nuns  who  are  forced  to  beg  for  their  neces- 
sities :  and  some  nuns  are  so  far  deceived,  as  that 
though  they  are  of  lawful  age,  and  of  years  capable  of 
craft,  after  they  have  lived,  above  a  year,  a  monastic 
life  among  the  nuns,  they  think  they  are  not  professed, 
and  that  they  may  return  to  a  secular  life,  because  they 
have  not  received  the  bishop's  benediction,  nor  made 
their  solemn  vow.  We  to  remove  such  mistakes,  declare 
by  authority  of  the  present  council,  that  such  as  have 
voluntarily  led  a  regular  life  in  a  college  for  above  a 
year  be  deemed  ^/>so  facto  professed;  so  as  not  to  be 


PECKHAM.  39 

permitted  to  return  to  a  secular  life ;  though  they  are 
solemnly  to  be  consecrated,  or  veiled  by  the  bishop. 
We  give  the  same  judgment  as  to  monks,  and  all  other 
religious  where  there  is  no  canonical  impediment ;  that 
if  they  have  for  above  a  year  willingly  worn  the  religious 
habit  in  a  monastery,  and  then  rejecting  it  return  to 
a  secular  life,  they  be  repelled  as  apostates  from  eccle- 
siastical benefices ;  and  be  compelled,  as  the  law  requires, 
to  return  to  their  monasteries.  Let  archdeacons  make 
diligent  inquiry  concerning  these  ;  because  we  know- 
many  who  have  the  heart  of  a  wolf  under  the  fleece 
of  a  sheep. 

19.  Provides  for  the  reclamation  of  relapsed  monks. 

20.  Forbids  monks  to  become  executors  to  wdlls. 

21.  Though  the  name  of  religion  be  by  use  appro- 
priated to  the  monastic  life,  [yet]  the  good  behaviour  of 
clergymen  has  a  remarkable  degree  of  religious  life  in 
it,  if  those  things  be  observed  which  the  canons  have 
decreed.  But,  alas,  very  many  clergymen  of  this  famous 
country,  imitate  the  madness  of  the  Jews,  who  preferred 
the  fashions  of  the  Grecians  to  those  of  their  fathers. 
They  are  ashamed  to  appear  as  clergymen,  and  take  the 
military  dress  to  please  fools,  and  provoke  wise  men. 
And  whereas  the  crown  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
a  soldier  of  the  Church,  and  of  a  heart  enlarged  and 
open  to  the  celestial  rays,  they  hide  their  crowns  with 
hairlaces,  and  like  the  Jews  have  a  veil  upon  their 
hearts,  whereby  those  rays  are  repelled.  But  we  sticking 
to  the  statute  of  the  Lord  Othobon  do  strictly  order  and 
charge,  that  every  clerk  in  holy  orders  have  his  outward 
garment  unlike  to  soldiers  and  laymen,  for  shape  and 
comeliness.  And  because  the  said  legate  against  clerks 
that  wore  coifs  and  hairlaces  before  their  prelates,  or 
people,  ordained,  that  if  they  did  not  reform  upon  a 
monition,  they  should  ipso  facto  incur  a  suspension 
from  office,  in  which  if  they  continued  for  three  months 
they  should  then  be  suspended  from  benefice,  and  not 


40  PECKHAM. 

be  absolved  till  they  have  given  the  sixth  part  of  their 
ecclesiastical  goods  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  by  the 
hands  of  the  Bishops,  and  yet  be  otherwise  punished 
at  the  bishop's  discretion:  we  observing  how  little 
effect  this  statute  hath  had,  because  lesser  prelates  dare 
not  admonish  such  monstrous  clergymen,  on  which  ac- 
count they  seem  to  have  fallen  into  the  punishments 
ordained  by  the  said  legate  as  their  pusillanimity  de- 
serves, and  such  clerks  seldom  come  into  the  presence 
of  bishops ;  we  ordain,  that  (since  ignorance  of  the  law 
does  not  excuse  clergymen)  such  clergymen,  as  often  as 
they  w^ore  such  coifs,  or  hairlaces  before  their  prelates,  or 
people,  do  without  any  monition  fall  under  the  punish- 
ments aforesaid ;  unless  it  be  in  a  journey.  And  we 
command  that  special  enquiry  be  made  after  such  for 
the  future  in  every  deanery,  and  that  whatever  their  de- 
gree or  dignity  be,  they  be  proceeded  against  in  form 
of  canon. 

22.  Forbids  the  sons  of  rectors  to  succeed  immediately 
to  their  fathers  in  churches  where  they  ministered.  This 
shews  that  though  celibacy  was  enforced,  concubinage 
w^as  common. 

23.  Orders  bishops  to  give  to  every  clerk  upon  his 
admission  to  a  benefice  letters  patent  testifying  his 
admission. 

24.  Forbids  pluralities. 

25.  Relates  to  the  office  of  advocate. 

26.  Orders  that  when  an  archbishop  or  bishop  dies, 
one  mass  for  his  soul  shall  be  said  in  every  parish  and 
monastery. 

In  1282  he  went  in  person  to  the  prince  of  Wales,  then 
at  Snowdon,  in  order  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween him  and  the  king  (Edward  I.)  but  was  unsuccess- 
ful ;  and,  therefore,  when,  on  his  return,  he  passed 
through  Oxford,  he  excommunicated  the  prince  and  his 
followers.  He  died  at  Mortlake  in  1292,  and  was  buried 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral,  near  the  remains  of  Thomas  a 


PELAGIUS.  41 

Becket.  He  founded  a  college  at  Wingliam,  in  Kent. 
Wood,  in  liis  Annals,  makes  frequent  mention  of  Peck- 
ham's  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  University 
of  Oxford ;  and  Tanner  enumerates  a  great  number  of 
his  works  on  divinity,  which  show  him  accomplished  in 
all  the  learning  of  his  age.  These  remain,  however,  in 
manuscript,  in  our  different  libraries,  except  some  of  his 
letters  published  by  Wharton,  and  his  statutes,  institu- 
tions, &c.,  in  the  Concil,  Mag.  Brit,  et  Hib.  vol.  ii.  Two 
only  of  his  works  were  published  separately,  and  often 
reprinted  ;  viz.,  his  Collectanea  Bibliorum,  libri  quinque; 
and  his  Perspectiva  Communis. — Collier.  Johnson. 
Landon.     Tanner. 

PELAGIUS, — (See  the  Life  oj  Augustine. J 

This  heresiarch  of  the  5th  century,  was  born  in  Wales. 
His  vernacular  name  was  Morgan,  or  Marigena,  signify- 
ing Sea-born,  which  he  changed  into  Pelagius,  a  word  of 
Greek  derivation,  and  of  the  same  meaning.  He  em- 
braced the  monastic  life,  probably  in  the  celebrated 
monastery  of  Bangor.  About  the  year  400,  accompanied 
by  his  intimate  friend  Coelestius,  an  Irish  monk,  he  went 
to  Rome,  and  there  began  to  disseminate  his  peculiar 
notions. 

Pelagius  was  a  man  of  irreproachable  morals,  and  in 
his  zeal  for  morality  it  was  that  he  started  his  heresy. 
He  saw  the  truth  abused  and  leading,  in  its  abuse,  to  a 
laxity  of  morals,  and  therefore  he  tried  to  introduce  a 
stricter  code.  Such  a  man  found  it  easy  to  gain  a  crowd 
of  followers ;  and  the  heresy  spread  so  much,  that  it 
became  neccesary  for  him  to  quit  Rome,  in  the  year  400, 
going  to  Sicily,  and  accompanied  by  Coelestius.  They 
continued  in  Sicily,  till  the  report  of  a  conference,  held 
at  Carthage  between  the  Orthodox  and  the  Donatists, 
induced  them  to  go  to  Africa  ;  but  Pelagius  did  not  stay 
long  there ;    and  after  his    departure,   Coelestius  being 


42  PELAGIUS. 

accused  of  denying  original  sin  by  Paulinus,  was  con- 
demned by  a  council  held  at  Carthage  in  the  year  412, 
under  Aurelius,  primate  of  Africa.  Upon  this  he  re- 
paired to  his  friend  Pelagius,  who  had  retired  to 
Palestine.  Here  they  were  well  received  by  John, 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  the  enemy  of  St.  Jerome.  In 
Palestine  his  doctrine  was  approved  in  a  council  held 
at  Diospolis,  in  415,  consisting  of  fourteen  bishops.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  African  bishops  held  a  council,  accor- 
ding to  custom,  in  416,  at  Carthage,  and  decided  that 
Pelagius  and  Coelestius  ought  to  be  anathematized ;  and 
they  communicated  their  judgment  to  Innocent  I.  in 
order  to  join  the  authority  of  the  see  of  Rome  to  their 
own;  and,  prompted  by  St.  Augustine,  they  refuted  in 
a  summary  way  the  chief  errors  imputed  to  Pelagius, 
concluding  thus  :  "  Though  Pelagius  and  Coelestius  dis- 
own this  doctrine,  and  the  writings  produced  against 
them,  without  its  being  possible  to  convict  them  of  false- 
hood ;  nevertheless,  we  must  anathematize  in  general 
whoever  teacheth  that  human  nature  is  capable  of 
avoiding  sin,  and  of  fulfilling  the  commands  of  God; 
as  he  show^s  himself  an  enemy  to  His  grace." 

Pelagius,  who  certainly  was  guilty  of  such  prevarica- 
tions at  this  time  as  to  induce  us  to  suppose  that  he  had 
now  forfeited  the  character  he  once  sustained  as  a  moral 
man  and  a  lover  of  truth,  resorted  to  the  artifice  often 
employed  by  the  crafty,  and  sent  declarations  of  his 
orthodoxy  and  his  obedience  to  Rome.  The  wicked 
policy  of  the  see  of  Rome  has  always  been  to  encourage 
every  act  by  which  the  authority  of  its  bishop  can  be 
advanced.  Coelestius  came  to  Rome  at  the  time 
when  Zosimus  had  just  been  elected  bishop.  In  an 
evil  hour  for  himself  and  his  see,  Zosimus,  flattered 
by  the  personal  appeal  to  his  justice  on  the  part  of 
the  heretics  and  the  acknowledged  submission  to  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  pronounced  the  innocence  of  the 
Pelaoian  doctrine. 


PELAGIUS.  43 

The  Pope  of  Rome  was  an  avowed  Pelagian  heretic. 

But  the  African  Bishops,  though  they  pitied  the  heresy 
of  their  brother,  were  firm  in  their  orthodoxy.  They 
assembled  in  417,  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and 
fourteen,  and  determined,  in  spite  of  the  heretical  Pope 
of  Rome,  to  adhere  to  their  decrees  against  Pelagius, 
and  before  excommunicating  Zosimus  remonstrated  with 
and  instructed  him.  In  418,  a  plenary  synod  of  Africa 
was  convened  at  Carthage,  and  in  eight  canons  it  con- 
demned the  principal  of  the  Pelagian  errors. 

The  Roman  Bishop  now  perceived  his  mistake,  and 
pretending  that  he  had  been  deceived,  although  he  had 
but  just  before  accepted  the  heresy,  joined  with  the 
African  bishops  in  condemning  the  heretic. 

Pelagius  was  banished  from  Italy  by  an  edict  of  the 
emperor  Honorius,  in  418.  It  is  supposed  that  he  after- 
wards retired  to  his  own  country. 

The  following  is  a  brief  statement  of  his  doctrines  as 
given  by  Dollinger. 

The  first  man  was  created  mortal,  and  must  conse- 
quently have  died,  whether  he  had  sinned  or  not.  As 
death  is  not  therefore  the  effect  of  sin,  sin  has  no  in- 
fluence generally  on  human  nature ;  and  being  a  thing 
unsubstantial,  it  cannot  affect  or  change  our  nature. 
Children  are  born,  therefore,  in  the  same  state  in  which 
Adam  was  before  his  fall,  and  men  are  as  free  now  as 
he  was  in  Paradise.  The  words  of  the  apostle,  "  that 
in  Adam  all  have  sinned,"  are  to  be  understood  to  signify 
only  that  all  imitate  the  first  man  in  the  sin  which  he 
committed,  for  that  which  is  unavoidable  is  no  sin,  and 
concupiscence,  even  in  its  present  state,  is  not  evil.  All 
men  can  consequently  exist  free  from  sin,  and  observe  all 
the  Divine  commandments.  That  man  can  desire  and 
perform  what  is  good,  is  a  power  which  he  has  received 
from  God  ;  and  it  is  in  the  bestowing  of  this  power, — 
that  is,  free-will  or  the  power  not  to  sin, — that  Divine 
grace  chiefly  consists  :  grace,  therefore,  is  an  assistance 


44  PELAGIUS. 

which  God  grants  to  us,  that  we  more  easily  perform 
those  things  which  He  has  commanded  us  to  perform  by 
virtue  of  our  free  will ;  this  grace  is  no  other  than  the 
law,  the  doctrine  and  the  example  of  Christ,  then  the 
remission  or  non-imputation  of  sin,  referring  only  to  the 
past,  not  connected  with  an  interior  sanctification  or 
strength  for  the  avoiding  of  future  offences.  In  addition 
to  these  external,  Pelagius,  during  the  contest,  allowed 
there  were  other  interior  and  supernatural  graces,  such 
as  the  in-dwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  which,  however, 
produced  no  more  than  an  enlightening  of  the  under- 
standing, not  that  sanctifying  grace  which  immediately 
affects  and  guides  the  will,  and  which  infuses  charity  into 
the  soul  of  man.  Of  this  doctrine  the  consequence  was, 
that  we  are  not  to  pray  to  God  that  He  would  grant  us 
His  grace  to  love  and  do  what  is  good,  but  only  the  grace 
to  know  it.  When,  therefore,  Pelagius  spoke  of  the  neces- 
sity of  grace,  he  thereby  understood  no  more  than  the 
first,  the  grant  of  free  will ;  and  this  he  defined  to  be  a 
state  of  indiff'erence,  or  equipoise  of  the  will  between 
good  and  evil :  the  assisting  or  helping  grace,  which  he 
admitted  was  not  necessary  to  man  for  overcoming 
temptation  or  for  fulfilling  the  commandments,  but 
with  it  man  was  enabled  to  perform  good  more  easily  : 
it  is  not  a  free  gift  of  God,  but  merited  by  man  by  the 
good  use  of  his  free  will :  for  God  gives  it  to  every  one, 
who,  by  the  sole,  proper,  due  employment  of  his  natural 
faculties,  disposes  himself  to  receive  it.  By  the  power  of 
his  free  will  alone,  man  can  attain  to  the  true  faith,  can 
merit  the  second  (the  assisting)  grace,  can  resist  every 
temptation,  and  comply  with  all  the  commandments. 
Baptism  is  necessary  to  adults  for  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ;  but  to  children,  who  are  born  without  sin  and 
without  guilt,  it  is  necessary  only  that  they  may  obtain 
the  adoption  of  children  of  God,  and  the  inheritance  of 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven ;  for  children  who  die  unbap- 
tized,  and  Pagans  who  have  lived  unstained  by  crime, 


PELLICAN.  45 

enjoy  eternal  life ;  not,  indeed,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  which  is  open  only  to  those  who  have  been 
baptized,  and  who  have  been  made  partakers  of  the 
grace  of  Christ. 

Very  few  of  his  writings  remain.  He  was  confuted  by 
Augustine,  Jerome,  Prosper,  and  Fulgentius,  his  con- 
temporaries. The  history  of  the  Pelagian  schism  has 
been  written  by  Archbishoj)  Usher,  in  his  Antiq.  Eccles. 
Britan, ;  Laet ;  Gerard  Vossius  ;  Le  Clerc  ;  Cardinal 
Noris;  Father  Garnier,  in  his  Supplem.  Oper.  Theo- 
doreti ;  Jansenius,  in  his  Augustine  ;  and  by  the  Jesuits, 
Longueval  and  Patouillet. —  Usher.    Mosheim.    Dollinger. 

PELLICAN,    CONRAD. 

CoNEAD  Pellican,  was  born  at  Euffach,  in  Alsace,  Jan. 
8,  1478.  We  have  his  autobiography  in  Melchior  Adam 
at  some  length.  He  was  educated  first  at  Ptuffach,  and 
then  at  Heidelberg.  In  1492,  he  returned  to  his  parents, 
who  were  too  poor  to  support  him,  and  he  earned  his 
livelihood  by  keeping  a  school.  His  desire  of  improve- 
ment was,  however,  unabated,  and  he  was  enabled  to 
borrow  what  books  he  wanted  from  the  neighbouring 
monastery  of  the  Cordeliers.  His  frequent  intercourse 
with  the  monks  rendered  him  open  to  their  persuasions, 
and,  contrary  to  the  wish  of  his  relations,  he  entered 
into  their  community  and  took  the  habit  in  the  sixteenth 
year  of  his  age.  In  1494,  he  was  ordained  a  sub-deacon. 
In  1496,  at  the  request  of  an  uncle  who  had  befriended 
him  and  who  was  in  better  circumstances  than  his  parents, 
he  went  for  further  improvement  first  to  Basle  and  then 
to  Tubingen,  where  he  was  instructed  and  protected  by 
Paul  Scuptor,  one  of  the  professors.  In  1499,  he  began 
to  study  Hebrew  under  the  instruction  of  a  converted 
Jew.  In  1500,  Reuchlin  came  to  Tubingen,  and  under 
him  PeUican  pursued  his  studies  witli  such  success  that, 
next  to   Reuchlin,  he  was  considered  the  best  Hebrew 


40  PELLICAN. 

scholar  in  Germany.  In  ]501,hewas  ordained  priest 
and  in  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
Divinity,  in  the  convent  of  his  order  at  Basle,  and  edited 
the  works  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Chrysostom.  He  also 
superintended  an  edition  of  the  Psalter  in  four  languages. 
In  1508,  he  was  appointed  to  a  similar  professorship  at 
his  native  place,  and  having  held  other  high  offices  in  his 
order,  he  was  appointed,  in  1519,  guardian  of  the  convent 
of  Basle. 

By  the  study  of  Scripture  he  had  for  some  time  heen 
convinced  of  the  unscriptural  state  of  the  existing  Church, 
and  on  reading  the  writings  of  Luther  now  brought  to 
Basle,  his  convictions  were  strengthened  and  his  doubts 
confirmed.  He  became  by  degrees  a  convert  to  the  re- 
former. Pellican  fearlessly  propounded  his  opinions,  and 
in  1522,  was  accused  of  Lutheranism  in  a  chapter  of  his 
order.  We  are  not  told  how  he  defended  himself,  but  it 
was  with  such  success  that  he  obtained  permission  for 
the  ablest  of  the  students  and  preachers  to  read  the  works 
of  Luther.  In  1523,  Gaspar  Sazgar,  the  provincial, 
visited  the  convent,  and  hearing  complaints  of  Pellican 
and  other  members  of  the  fraternity,  of  their  being 
Lutherans,  prepared  to  remove  the  accused  from  their 
situations.  But  he  was  prevented  from  taking  that  step 
by  the  interference  of  the  senate,  who  confirmed  Pellican 
in  his  place,  and  appointed  him  fellow-professor  of 
divinity  with  Oi^colampadius.  Sometime  afterwards  he 
was  removed  from  the  office  of  guardian ;  but  he  still 
retained  his  post  at  the  university,  and  filled  the  theo- 
logical chair  alternately  with  his  learned  colleague.  In 
1526,  on  the  invitation  of  Zuinglius,  he  withdrew  to 
Zurich,  where  he  was  appointed  professor  of  divinity 
and  of  Hebrew.  He  now,  in  his  forty-eighth  year,  to 
show  that  he  finally  renounced  the  papal  communion, 
took  to  himself  a  wife.  He  doubtless  did  this  as  a 
protest  against  the  demoralizing  celibacy  enforced  upon 
the  clergy  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  but  he  had  the  vow 


PELLICAN.  47 

upon  him,  and  by  breaking  the  vow  he  disgusted  those 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome  who  were  beginning  to 
see  the  evil  of  their  system.  He  should  have  vindicated 
the  liberty  of  others  without  availing  himself  of  it 
on  his  own  account.  But  the  reformers  generally  took 
a  different  view  of  the  matter.  This  step  lost  him  the 
friendship  of  Erasmus,  with  whom  he  had  been  inti- 
mately connected. 

In  the  same  year  he  edited  a  second  impression  of 
the  Biblia  Hebraica,  cum  Comment.  R.  Abraam  Abe- 
neara,  et  R.  Salomonis  in  Prophetas  ;  and  also  of  the  Se- 
pher  Michlol,  first  printed  at  Constantinople.  In  1528, 
he  took  part  in  the  celebrated  disputation  at  Bern,  on  the 
subject  of  the  Eucharist,  and  published  a  volume  of  the 
debates  and  speeches  on  that  occasion.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  commenced  his  public  exposition  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament.  This  work,  entitled,  Commentarii 
Bibliorum  cum  Vulgata  Editione,  sed  ad  Hebraicam 
lectionem  accurate  emendata,  Zurich,  1531 — 1536,  4 
vols.,  fol ,  is  highly  commended  by  Richard  Simon. 
He  next  devoted  his  labours  to  an  illustration  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  he  published  in  2  vols.,  fol.  He 
had,  besides,  a  considerable  share  in  editing  the  commen- 
taries of  Sebastian  Meyer  upon  the  Apocryphal  books. 
He  also  translated  into  Latin  the  Chaldee  paraphrases, 
including  the  Targums  of  Onkelos,  Jonathan,  and  Jeru- 
salem, various  small  Talmudical  treatises,  and  Elias 
Levita's  edition  of  the  Massora.  He  published,  in  Ger- 
man, An  Exposition  of  the  Pentateuch,  Joshua,  Ruth, 
Samuel,  and  the  Books  of  Kings.  He  also  published, 
Psalterium  Davidis  ad  Hebraicam  veritatem  interpreta- 
tum,  cum  Scholis  brevissimis ;  and  he  bestowed  great 
labour  in  editing  various  commentaries,  dictionaries, 
&c.,  of  which  an  enumeration  may  be  seen  in  Melchior 
Adam.  He  died  in  1556.  His  works  have  been  col- 
lected together,  and  published  in  7  vols,  fol. — Melchior 
Adam. 


48  PEPJON. 


PEMBLE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Pemble,  was  bom  in  1591,  and  was  educated 
at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  He  was  a  learned  man, 
though  a  Calvinist ;  he  died  in  April,  1623. 

His  works,  all  of  which  were  separately  printed  after 
his  death,  were  collected  in  1635,  fol.,  and  reprinted  four 
or  five  times  ;  but  this  volume  does  not  include  his  Latin 
works,  De  Formarum  Origine;  De  Sensibus  internis; 
and  Enchiridion  Oratorium. — Wood.     Fuller. 

PEEION,    JOACHIM. 

Joachim  Perton  was  born  at  Cormeri,  in  the  Touraine, 
about  1500,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  entered  the 
Benedictine  abbey  at  his  native  place,  and  afterwards 
studied  at  Paris,  where  for  twenty  years  he  applied 
himself  to  the  reading  of  the  authors  of  antiquity, 
especially  Cicero.  He  was  admitted  to  the  degree  of 
doctor  by  the  faculty  of  theology  at  Paris,  and  during 
several  years  explained  the  Scriptures  in  that  city  with 
great  applause.  By  a  decree  of  the  university  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  defend  Aristotle  and  Cicero  against  Ramus  ; 
and  he  discharged  that  task  with  great  success.  He 
died  in  1559. 

His  printed  works  are ; — De  Dialectica  Lib.  III. ; 
Historia  Abdise  Eabylonii ;  Topicorum  Theologicorum 
Lib.  II. ;  De  Origine  Linguae  Gallicse,  et  ejus  cum 
Greca  Cognatione ;  Liber  de  sanctorum  Virorum  qui 
Patriarchae  ab  Ecclesia  appellantur  Ptebus  gestis,  ac 
Vitis  ;  De  Vita  Rebusque  Jesu  Christi ;  and,  De  Vita 
Virginis  et  Apostolorom;  in  both  of  these  the  Scrip- 
ture history  is  debased  by  the  intermixture  of  absurd 
fabulous  legends ;  De  Romanorum  et  Graecorum  Ma- 
gistratibus  Lib.  III. ;  Notes  on  the  Harangues  in  Livy  ; 
and,  a  Latin  Version  of  the  Commentary  of  Origen 
upon  Job,  &c. — Biog.   Universelle. 


PETAVIUS.  49 


PETAVIUS,    (PETAU)    DAVIS. 

Davis  (Petau)  Petavius  was  born  at  Orleans  in  1583. 
He  was  educated  at  Paris,  and  in  his  nineteenth  year 
was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  at  Bourges. 
In  his  twenty-third  year  he  entered  into  the  society  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  a  veritable  Jesuit  he  became.  He 
studied  divinity  at  Pont  a  Mousson,  and  afterwards 
taught  Rhetoric  and  Theology  at  Rheims,  La  Pleche, 
and  Pans. 

In  1621,  he  succeeded  Fronton  du  Due  in  the  chair 
of  theology,  which  he  filled  with  distinguished  repu- 
tation for  twenty-two  years.  He  Vv'as  perfectly  versed  in 
the  learned  languages,  and  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
sciences ;  but  his  particular  study  was  chronology,  and 
it  is  upon  his  writings  on  that  topic  that  his  literary 
fame  is  chiefly  founded.  Declining  an  invitation  to 
Madrid  from  Philip  IV.,  and  to  Rome  from  Urban  VIlL, 
he  continued  to  live  in  his  cell  in  the  college  of  Clermont, 
where  he  died  in  1652,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 
He  had  been  a  great  sufferer  from  the  stone,  so  that  he 
regarded  death  as  a  desirable  release.  The  writings  of 
Petavius  are  numerous  and  various.  He  appeared  as  a 
translator  and  critical  editor  in  his  Latin  versions  and 
editions  of  several  pieces  of  St.  Epiphanius,  of  Synesius, 
Themistius,  the  emperor  Julian,  and  the  historical 
abridgment  of  the  Patriarch  Nicephorus.  He  exercised 
himself  in  poetry  both  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages, 
in  the  former  of  which  he  gave  a  paraphrase  of  all  the 
Psalms  and  Canticles. 

The  first  of  his  more  important  works  is,  De  Doctrina 
Temporum,  2  vols,  folio,  1627;  it  was  republished  with 
considerable  additions  by  himself,  as  well  as  by  Har- 
douin  and  others,  in  8  vols,  folio,  Antwerp,  1703;  it  is 
generally  accompanied  by  his  Uranologia,  in  quo  Graeci 
Auctores  varii  de  Sphsera  ac  Sideribus  commentati  sunt, 

VOL.    VIII.  F 


50  PETAVIUS. 

&c.  folio,  1630.  He  also  published  : — Rationarium  Tem- 
porum,  2  vols.  8vo.,  1652  ;  this  is  an  abridgment  of  his 
De  Doctrina  Temporum,  with  an  abstract  of  general 
history;  of  the  various  editions  of  this  useful  work,  the 
best  is  reckoned  to  be  that  of  J.  Conrad  Rungius,  2  vols. 
-Svo.  Lugd.  B.  1710;  Perizonius  published  an  edition  of 
it,  with  a  continuation  down  to  1715  ;  and,  Dogmata 
Theologica,  3  vols,  folio,  1644 — 1650;  the  best  edition 
is  that  of  Venice,  1758,  7  vols,  folio,  superintended  by 
Zaccaria,  with  dissertations,  notes,  and  a  life  of  the 
author. 

This  is  the  work  for  which  he  is  "  damned  to  fame"  in 
the  theological  world,  and  which  has  been  demolished  by 
our  own  Bishop  Bull.  His  object  was  to  prove  that  the 
Ante-Nicene  fathers  were  not  orthodox  or  Homoousians 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Hence,  the  Arians 
have  claimed  him  as  their  own,  and  "  Unitarians" 
in  their  own  unfairness  praise  him  for  the  "fairness 
of  his  statements."  Anything  but  fairness  of  state- 
ment appears  to  have  been  the  design  of  Petavius. 
Bishop  Bull  acquits  him  of  any  intention  of  advancing 
the  cause  of  Arianism,  and  suggests  that  he  had  in  view 
the  support  of  the  pope  rather  that  Arius,  and  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  than  of  any  other  sect.  His  course 
was  truly  Jesuitical,  and  such  as  other  writers  of  his 
communion  have  not  feared  to  pursue.  Truth  and 
Christianity  itself  they  would  sacrifice  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  Roman  see.  Petavius  perceived  that  if 
the  Catholic  writers  of  the  first  three  centuries  were 
almost  all  of  the  same  opinion,  which  was  afterwards 
condemned  in  Arius  for  heresy,  by  the  Council  of 
Nice ;  or  that  they  wrote  in  such  a  manner  as  they 
m.ight  at  least  be  thought  to  hold  such  an  opinion,  by 
their  loose  way  of  expressing  themselves ;  it  will  thence 
follow,  as  he  (Prooem.  88,)  has  himself  observed,  first, 
that  there  is  very  little  regard  to  be  had  to  the  fathers 
of  the  first  three  centuries,  to  whom  the  reformed  Catho- 


PETER.  61 

lies  generally  appealed,  and  secondly,  that  general  councils 
have  a  power  of  making  new  articles  of  faith,  or  of 
manifesting  and  declaring  them,  as  he  preferred  to  ex- 
press it :  the  inference  from  all  which  he  designed  to 
be  that  all  the  additions  to  the  primitive  faith,  voted  at 
the  pretended  Council  of  Trent,  ought  to  be  received 
without  examination.  With  this  view,  Petavius  set  to 
work  to  prove  the  heterodoxy  of  the  Ante-Nicene  fathers. 
How  completely  and  miserably  he  has  failed  may  be  seen 
in  the  incomparable  works  of  Bishop  Bull.  The  more 
honest  or  less  crafty  of  his  own  communion  became 
alarmed  at  his  boldness,  and  the  Sorbonne  compelled 
him  to  qualify  his  statements  in  an  orthodox  preface, 
which,  however,  has  only  made  him  appear  inconsistent 
with  himself.  In  like  manner  his  representations  of  the 
opinions  of  St.  Augustine  having  given  offence  to  his 
brethren  of  the  society,  he  was  forced  to  retract,  and 
adopt  the  Molinist  sense  of  those  doctrines.  It  is  re- 
ported that  he  said  to  a  friend,  as  a  reason  for  this  altera- 
tion, "  I  am  too  old  to  change  my  lodgings,"  intimating 
that  he  must  otherwise  have  quitted  the  society :  such 
was  its  tyranny  in  matter  of  opinion!  The  style  of 
Petavius,  when  writing  upon  these  abstruse  and  thorny 
subjects,  is  much  admired  for  its  purity  and  clearness. 
His  life  is  written  at  length  by  Father  Oudin,  in  the 
"Memoires  du  Niceron." — Oudin.    Bull.    Bayle. 


PETER. 

Peter,  Bishop  of  Alexander,  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
prelates  of  the  fourth  century,  was  educated  at  Alexan- 
dria, of  which  city  he  was  probably  a  native.  He  was  a 
pupil  of  Thomas,  the  bishop  of  that  see,  whose  successor 
he  became  in  the  year  300.  "  He  was,"  says  Eusebius, 
"  a  most  excellent  teacher  of  the  Christian  doctrine— an 
ornament  to  the  episcopal  character,  both  for  the  holiness 


53  PETEK,  BLESSENSIS. 

of  his  life,  and  his  laborious  application  in  studying  and 
explaining  the  sacred  Scriptures.  He  governed  the 
Church  three  years  before  the  persecution.  The  rest 
of  his  time  he  passed  in  a  more  strict  and  mortified 
course  of  life,  but  without  neglecting  the  common  good 
of  the  Churches."  "Without  any  crime  of  any  kind 
laid  to  his  charge,"  adds  the  same  writer,  "  beyond  all 
expectation,  on  a  sudden,  for  no  other  reason  but  the 
will  of  Maximin,  he  was  taken  into  custody  and  be- 
headed." His  martyrdom  took  place  in  311.  He  had  a 
quarrel  with  Meletius,  Bishop  of  Lycopolis,  which  pro- 
duced a  long  schism  in  the  Egyptian  Church.  He  is  the 
reputed  author  of: — A  Book  on  Penance,  thirteen  canons 
of  which  are  inserted  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  Collect.  ConciL  ;  Some  fragments  also 
of  another  treatise  attributed  to  him.  Concerning  the 
Divinity,  may  be  met  with  in  the  third  and  fourth  vols, 
of  the  same  collection. — Eusehius.    Dupin. 

PETER,    BLESSENSIS. 

Blessensis  Peter,  or  Peter  of  Blois,  who  flourished 
in  the  12th  century,  was  educated  at  Paris  and  Bologna. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  John  of  Salisbury,  so  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  life  of  Thomas  a  Becket. 

In  1167,  he  travelled  into  Sicily  with  Stephen,  son  of 
the  Count  of  Perche,  and  cousin  to  the  queen  of  that 
island,  where  he  was  appointed  tutor,  and  afterwards 
secretary,  to  William  II.  of  Sicily.  When,  however, 
Stephen,  who  had  been  made  chancellor  of  the  king- 
dom, and  Archbishop  of  Palermo,  was  sent  into  banish- 
ment, Peter  was  involved  in  his  disgrace,  and  found  it 
necessary  to  take  refuge  in  his  native  country.  Hence 
he  was  invited  into  England  by  Henry  II.,  at  whose 
court  he  continued  for  some  time,  and  was  nominated 
Archdeacon  of  Bath.  He  next  entered  into  the  service 
of  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  (the  successor  of 


PETER,  CHRYSOLOGUS.  53 

Thomas  a  Becket,)  who  appointed  him  his  chancellor, 
and  deputed  him  to  negotiate  business  of  importance 
relating  to  his  metropolitan  see,  with  Henry  IT.  and 
Alexander  III.  and  Urban  III.  After  the  death  of 
Henry  he  resided  for  a  time  at  the  court  of  Queen 
Eleanor.  Late  in  life  he  was  deprived  of  his  Arch- 
deaconry of  Bath  ;  though  he  was  was  afterwards  in 
some  degree  compensated  for  his  loss  by  obtaining  that 
of  London.  He  died  in  1200.  The  word  Transubstan- 
tiation  is  said  to  have  been  first  of  all  made  use  of  by 
him  to  express  the  doctrine  of  the  Romish  Church  on 
the  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  The  most  considerable  of 
his  remains  consist  of  Letters,  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  in  number,  which  he  formed  into  a  collection  by 
order  of  Henry  II.  They  abound  in  quotations  from 
the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  from  ecclesiastical  and  profane 
writers.  There  are  also  still  extant  several  sermons  of 
this  author,  and  various  treatises  which  he  wrote  on 
doctrinal  and  moral  topics.  Peter  de  Goussainville 
published  a  new  edition  of  all  his  works,  1677,  fol., 
with  notes  and  various  readings,  which  is  inserted  in 
the  twenty-fourth  volume  of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  A  work  of 
his  on  Canon  Law  and  Process  has  lately  been  discovered, 
of  which  an  account  is  given  in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir 
Geschichtliche  Rechtswissenschaft,  vol.  vii.  p.  207. — 
Cave.     Lyttelton.     Moreri. 


PETER,     CHRYSOLOGUS. 

Peter,  surnamed  Chrysologus,  a  celebrated  Italian  pre- 
late of  the  fifth  century,  was  born  at  Forum  Cornelii, 
(Imola) ;  and  also  educated  at  his  native  place,  where 
he  became  deacon  to  Cornelius  the  Bishop.  Without 
noticing  the  legendary  tales  which  are  related  concerning 
him,  we  have  only  to  state,  that  he  was  elected  Bishop  of 
Ravenna  in  the  year  483,  and  died  before  451.  His 
F   3 


54  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

eloquence  was  greatly  admired ;  whence  he  had  the  sur- 
name of  Chrysologus,  meaning  golden  speaker.  What 
remains  of  his  productions  consists  chiefly  of  Sermons, 
or  Homilies,  containing  short  explanations  of  portions 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  accompanied  with  moral  reflec- 
tions. They  are  drawn  up  in  a  perspicuous  and  pleasing 
style ;  and  are  distinguished  by  a  happy  union  of  con- 
sciousness and  elegance.  They  were  collected  together 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  his  death,  by  Felix, 
one  of  his  successors  in  the  see  of  Ravenna,  and  were 
first  printed,  to  the  number  of  176,  at  Cologne,  in  the 
year  1541.  Afterwards  they  underwent  repeated  impres- 
sions at  the  same  place,  Antwerp,  Paris,  Lyons,  Venice, 
and  Bologna,  and  were  inserted  in  the  seventh  volume 
of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  Six  others,  on  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
are  given  by  Father  D'Achery  in  his  "  Spicilegium." 
There  is  also  still  extant  "  A  Letter  to  Eutyches  the 
Archimandrite,"  in  which  Peter  declares  against  the 
sentiments  of  that  monk,  and  expresses  his  approbation 
of  the  conduct  of  Flaireneus.  It  was  first  published 
by  Gerard  Vossius  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus. — Moreri.  Cave. 


PETER    THE    HERMIT. 

Peter  the  Hermit  was  born  in  the  eleventh  century, 
at  Amiens,  in  Picardy.  He  was  a  soldier  in  early  life, 
and  then  retired  to  a  hermitage  in  the  South  of  France, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  austerities ;  abstaining 
from  flesh  meat  and  bread,  but  permitting  to  himself 
the  use  of  wine.  The  fanaticism  of  the  age  evinced 
itself  in  the  love  of  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem,  and  to 
Jerusalem,  in  1093,  Peter  bent  his  steps.  He  viewed 
with  horror  the  barbarity  of  the  Turks  and  the  sufferings 
of  the  faithful.  The  desire  and  the  hope  of  effecting 
the   deliverance  of  the  daughter   of   Zion   rose  in   his 


PETER  THE  HERMIT.  56 

bosom ;  he  sought  the  patriarch,  the  venerable  Simeon, 
and  they  mingled  their  tears  as  they  bemoaned  the  com- 
mon calamity.  "  The  sins  of  the  oriental  Christians," 
said  Simeon,  "have  made  nought  their  power;  the 
Greeks  have,  within  these  few  years,  lost  half  their 
empire ;  our  own  hope  lies  in  the  strength  and  piety 
of  the  nations  of  the  West."  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
hermit  broke  forth,  and  he  offered  his  aid.  "  I  send  thee 
then,"  said  the  patriarch,  "as  the  envoy  of  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem  to  her  daughter  in  the  West,  to  entreat  of 
her  pity  and  aid  for  her  unhappy  parent."  The  anchorite 
accepted  the  commission,  and  received  letters  for  the  pope 
and  potentates  of  the  W^est. 

Even  Heaven  itself  seemed  to  the  heated  imagina- 
tion of  the  hermit  to  interpose  in  his  mission.  As  in 
the  evening  he  poured  forth  his  soul  in  prayer,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Resurrection,  to  God  and  the  saints,  to  pros- 
per his  undertaking,  sleep  came  over  his  weary  frame,  and 
in  a  dream  Christ  appeared  to  him,  and  said,  "  Arise, 
Peter,  haste,  and  do  boldly  what  thou  hast  undertaken. 
I  will  be  with  thee,  for  the  time  is  come  that  the  sanc- 
tuary should  be  cleansed,  and  my  people  holpen."  He 
awoke  full  of  vigour,  went  and  told  his  dream  to  the 
patriarch,  and  hasted  to  Antioch  to  embark  for  Italy. 

This  dream  of  the  hermit  has  been  by  many  regarded 
as  a  pious  fraud ;  for  our  part  we  are  disposed  to  view 
it  as  a  reality.  There  is  nothing  in  the  character  of 
Peter  which  should  lead  us  to  look  on  him  as  a  hypocrite, 
but  he  was  a  man  constitutionally  timid,  with  a  very 
excitable  imagination.  To  such  a  man,  when,  over- 
whelmed with  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  had 
assumed,  and  exhausted  by  fasting  and  the  fervour  of 
devotion,  he  sunk  in  sleep,  nothing  was  more  natural 
than  the  appearance  of  such  a  dream  as  we  have  related. 
Ill  is  he  qualified  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  crusades 
who  discerns  falsehood  and  imposture  at  every  step ! 

Peter  landed  at  Bari  in  ApuHa.    Without  loss  of  tima 


56  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

he  hasted  to  Rome,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Pope 
Urban  11.  the  letter  of  the  patriarch.  Urban  approved 
of  his  project,  and  gave  him  letters  from  himself  to  all 
Christian  princes.  The  hermit,  thus  furnished  with  cre- 
dentials, traversed  Italy  ;  he  crossed  the  Alps,  and  visited 
all  parts  of  France.  Mounted  on  a  mule,  his  head  and 
feet  bare,  his  coarse  pilgrim's  garment  bound  round 
him  with  a  cord,  and  a  crucifix  in  his  hand,  he  went 
from  province  to  province,  and  from  town  to  town. 
He  confined  his  addresses  not  to  the  great  alone;  he 
harangued  the  assembled  people,  he  set  before  them  with 
all  the  fire  of  his  eloquence  the  sufferings  of  pious 
pilgrims,  the  profanation  of  the  holy  places;  he  told 
them  how  the  Saviour  had  deigned  to  appear  to  him 
personally  ;  he  read  to  them  the  letters  of  the  patriarchs, 
and  other  Christians ;  he  even,  it  is  said,  shewed  them 
one  which  had  fallen  from  heaven.  The  benevolence  of 
the  pious  loaded  the  hermit  with  gifts,  these  he  bestowed 
on  the  poor,  or  employed  in  providing  husbands  for 
women  who  renounced  a  sinful  course  of  life.  Where- 
ever  he  came  he  preached  peace  and  concord,  and  his 
words  found  obedience  as  coming  from  God.  Wherever 
he  went  he  was  regarded  as  a  saint,  and  the  very  hairs 
that  fell  from  his  mule  were  preserved  as  relics. 

A  council  was  meantime  assembled  by  the  pope  at 
Piacenza,  which  was  so  numerously  attended  that  it 
could  not  as  usual  be  holden  in  a  church,  and  a  field  was 
the  scene  of  deliberation.  Ambassadors  appeared  from 
the  Greek  emperor,  who  pourtrayed  the  power  and  ferocity 
of  the  Turks,  and  the  peril  of  the  empire,  and  implored 
the  aid  of  the  Latin  Christians.  The  pope  supported 
their  prayer,  and  a  large  number  of  those  present 
swore  to  march  to  the  aid  of  Alexius  against  the  Infidels. 
But  Italy  was  not  the  place  where  a  spirit  of  holy  enthu- 
siasm could  be  best  excited.  The  feudal  principle  was 
not  strong  in  that  country,  the  imperial  party  was 
numerous,  and  commerce  with  the  East  had  taught  the 


PETER  THE   HERMIT.  ST 

people  to  view  the  Moslems  with  less  abhorrence  than 
was  felt  by  those  who  only  knew  them  by  fame.  Urban 
therefore  resolved  to  make  France,  of  which  country  he 
was  a  native,  the  scene  of  his  greatest  efforts. 

In  the  year  1095,  the  pope  crossed  the  Alps.  Having 
holden  councils  in  Puy  and  other  places  to  prepare  the 
clergy,  he  appointed  the  eighth  day  after  the  festival  of 
St.  Martin  (the  11th  Nov.)  for  the  meeting  of  a  general 
council  of  Clermont,  in  Auvergne,  whither  the  clergy  were 
commanded  to  repair  under  penalty  of  the  loss  of  their 
benefices.  More  than  three  hundred  prelates  and  abbots 
obeyed  the  summons  of  the  pontiff,  and  the  number  of 
the  inferior  clergy  was  proportionably  great ;  the  atten- 
dance of  the  laity  was  immense.  The  town  of  Clermont 
sufficed  not  to  contain  within  its  wall  the  prelates, 
princes,  ambassadors,  and  nobles  who  crowded  thither, 
"  so  that,"  says  an  old  chronicler,  "towards  the  middle 
of  the  month  of  November,  the  towns  and  villages 
around  were  all  filled  with  people,  and  many  were 
obliged  to  pitch  their  tents  in  the  meads  and  fields, 
though  the  season  and  the  country  were  full  of  extreme 
cold."  When  the  ordinary  business  of  the  council  had 
been  gone  through,  and  the  Truce  of  God  had  been 
again  enjoined,  the  pontiff  assembled  the  people  in  an 
open  square,  where  he  ascended  a  stage,  and  took  his 
seat  on  a  throne  surrounded  by  his  cardinals,  with  the 
Hermit  standing  at  his  side,  then  arose  and  addressed 
the  people  in  a  very  animated  discourse,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  which,  as  well  as  in  the  course  of  its  delivery, 
the  people,  melted  to  tears  and  glowing  with  enthusaism, 
shouted  "God  wills  it."  Ademar,  Archbishop  of  Puy, 
ran  forward  with  a  joyful  countenance,  and  falling  at  the 
feet  of  the  pontiff  craved  permission  to  share  in  the  holy 
war.  His  example  was  followed  by  William,  Bishop  of 
Orange.  Clergy  and  laity  pressed  forward  to  enter  on 
the  way  of  the  Lord.  They  all  cast  themselves  on  the 
ground,  and  one  of  the  cardinals  read  a  general  confes- 


58  PETER  THE  HERMIT. 

sion  in  their  names,  and  the  pope  bestowed  on  them  the 
absolution  of  their  sins.  Each  pilgrim  affixed  a  red 
cross  to  the  right  shoulder  of  his  garment,  hence  they 
were  called  the  Crossed  (Croises)  and  the  Holy  War 
named  a  Crusade  (Croisade).  The  pope  charged  the 
clergy,  on  their  return  home,  to  stimulate  the  warlike 
portion  of  the  people  to  the  holy  expedition,  and  to 
prohibit  all  others  from  sharing  in  it.  The  prelates 
besought  him  to  be  their  leader,  but  he  excused  himself, 
as  there  was  an  anti-pope,  and  he  was  still  on  ill  terms 
with  the  emperor  of  Germany  and  the  King  of  France, 
but  he  promised  to  join  them  as  soon  as  peace  was 
restored  to  the  Church.  Meantime  he  appointed  the 
Bishop  of  Puy  to  be  his  legate  in  the  camp  of  the 
faithful. 

The  crusaders  of  the  better  sort  were  led  by  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon.  A  promiscuous  horde  of  men  and  women 
to  the  number  of  60,000,  was  led  by  Peter  from  the 
borders  of  France,  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and 
the  Danube.  Their  progress  was  marked  by  pillage  and 
disorders  of  all  kinds,  and  by  the  massacre  of  all  the 
Jews  who  fell  in  their  way.  As  they  approached  the 
confines  of  Hungary  and  Bulgaria  the  fierce  natives  of 
those  countries  rose  upon  them,  and  cut  them  off  in  such 
numbers,  that  only  a  third  part,  with  Peter  himself, 
having  taken  refuge  in  the  Thracian  mountains,  at 
length  escaped  to  Constantinople.  Almost  all  these 
were  afterwards  slain  by  the  Turks  in  the  plain  of  Nice, 
while  Peter  had  prudently  withdrawn  from  the  camp, 
and  remained  in  the  Greek  capital.  He,  however, 
accompanied  the  better  disciplined  army  of  Godfrey, 
and  v^as  present  at  the  siege  of  Antioch  in  1097.  But 
his  fanatical  ardour  seems  now  to  have  deserted  him ; 
for  during  the  hardships  attending  that  enterprise  he 
attempted  to  make  his  escape.  He  was,  however, 
brought  back  by  Tancred,  who  obliged  him  to  swear 
that  he  would  never  desert  an  expedition  of  which  he 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  59 

was  the  first  mover.  He  afterwards  distinguished  him- 
seK  at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  on  which  account  he  has 
obtained  immortal  renown  from  the  muse  of  Tasso. 
After  the  capture  of  that  city  he  was  appointed  by  the 
patriarch,  during  his  absence  in  Godfrey's  army,  to  act 
as  his  yicar-general.  Peter  died  the  7th  of  July,  1115, 
at  the  Abbey  of  Neu-Moutier,  near  Huy,  of  which  he 
was  the  founder. — Keightley. 


PETER    THE    VENERABLE. 

Maurice  Peter,  generally  known  as  Peter  the  Venerable, 
was  born  in  the  year  1093,  being  the  descendant  of  a 
noble  house  in  Arragon.  He  was  dedicated  by  his 
parents  to  a  monastic  life,  and  received  his  education 
in  the  Monastery  of  Clugni,  a  house  of  a  so-called 
reformed  branch  of  the  Benedictine  order.  In  his 
twenty-eighth  year  he  was  made  prior  of  Vezelay,  and 
soon  after  prior  of  Domnus.  He  was  called  to  fill  the 
vacant  place  of  abbot  of  Clugni,  in  the  year  1123,  and 
was  at  the  same  time  chosen  general  of  his  order. 

The  circumstances  of  his  appointment  are  remarkable 
and  illustrate  the  spirit  of  the  middle  ages.  The  order 
of  Clugni  originated  in  a  project  of  conventual  refor- 
mation, and  had  at  first  the  tendency  to  restore  the 
precise  and  literal  observance  of  the  Benedictine  rule, 
in  all  its  primitive  austerity.  The  convent  was  at  first 
only  distinguished  for  the  severity  of  its  discipline,  and 
the  frequency  of  its  devotional  exercises.  The  fame  of 
this  attracted  the  reverence  and  the  gifts  of  the  people  : 
a  succession  of  eminent  men  had  presided  over  the  order, 
whose  advice  and  participation  had  been  solicited  by 
popes  and  sovereigns  in  affairs  of  moment.  The 
benevolent  purposes  to  which  they  applied  their  wealth 
excited  general  esteem  and  affection.  But  the  wealth 
^nd  power  of  the  order  produced  their  usual  results,  the 


60  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

relaxation  of  their  original  severity  of  discipline,  and  the 
abandonment  of  that  mechanical  system  of  monkish 
devotion,  so  wearying  to  the  spirit.  The  convent  richly 
adorned,  had  now  become  the  seat  of  arts  and  learning, 
but  with  these  came  also  their  accustomed  and  pernicious 
followers — luxury  and  sensuality.  Under  the  sway  of 
Pontius,  a  young  and  worldly  man,  who,  in  the  year 
1109,  was  chosen  abbot  of  Clugni,  the  revenues  of  the 
monastery  were  squandered,  and  many  disorders  and 
abuses  inimical  to  its  interests  and  authority  suffered  to 
prevail.  The  case  at  last  became  so  notorious,  as  to 
reach  the  ears  of  Pope  Calixtus  the  second,  who  ad- 
monished Pontius  of  the  impropriety  of  his  conduct. 
In  consequence  of  this,  the  abbot  abdicated  his  post,  and 
resolved  on  undertaking  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 

It  was  to  his  place,  declared  vacant,  that  Peter  the 
Venerable  was  appointed.  The  repentance  of  Pontius, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  transient.  At  the  end  of 
two  years  he  endeavoured  to  reinstate  himself  in  the 
supremacy  of  the  order ;  and  as  his  character  was  far 
more  suitable  to  the  general  inclinations  of  the  monks, 
than  that  of  Peter,  who,  though  far  more  gentle,  was  at 
the  same  time  stricter  in  moral  and  religious  require- 
ments, he  found  many  partizans,  and  having  forced  his 
way  into  the  convent  during  the  absence  of  Peter,  he 
seized  on  the  treasures  belonging  to  the  monastery,  even 
to  the  splendid  ornaments  of  the  church,  the  costly  cruci- 
fixes, and  the  golden  reliquaries,  in  order  to  gain  the  means 
of  strengthening  his  party.  These  proceedings  led  to 
the  greatest  confusion  in  the  order,  till  at  length  Pope 
Honorius  the  second  interfered,  and  by  his  authority  put 
an  end  to  the  strife,  and  in  the  year  1125  reinstated  and 
confirmed  the  abbot  Peter,  in  his  office.  But  these 
disorders  had  left  many  pernicious  results  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  order,  which  had  tended  greatly  to  the 
prejudice  of  his  authority.  At  this  era  the  Cistercian 
order  was  extending  itself  widely,  and  to  its  extension 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  61 

Bernard  contributed  far  more  than  the  presiding  abbot. 
By  their  rigid  ascetic  austerity,  and  their  hteral  adhe- 
rence to  the  Benedictine  rule,  the  Cistercian  monks  were 
pecuHarly  distinguished  from  the  luxurious  Clugniacs, 
and  obtained  in  consequence  the  greater  veneration. 
The  character  of  humihty  and  poverty,  conveyed  by  the 
unadorned  plainness  of  their  convent  and  churches, 
presented  a  remarkable  contrast  to  those  of  Clugni  with 
their  manifold  decorations  and  paintings,  and  this 
diversity  of  character  led  to  a  spirit  of  rivalry  between 
the  orders,  and  which  their  frequent  collisions  in  their 
efforts  for  extension  had  a  further  tendency  to  promote. 
The  men  who  had  sought  the  seclusion  of  the  cloister, 
in  order  that,  escaping  from  the  passions  and  the 
tumults  of  earth,  and  dead  to  the  attractions  of  the 
world,  they  might  live  to  the  Spirit,  here  gave  proof  that 
the  change  of  place  and  external  modes  of  life,  were 
insufficient  of  themselves  to  change  the  heart  of  man, 
(Naturam  expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret)  and  that 
it  must  be  something  above  nature,  and  therefore  unat- 
tainable by  external  forms,  and  unconnected  with  any 
peculiar  localities,  which  can  alone  have  power  to  over- 
come nature.  The  same  vain  pride  and  petty  jealousies 
which  agitate  the  world,  were  seen  to  actuate  those  who 
had  withdrawn  from  it,  and  their  operation  was  but  the 
more  sensibly  felt,  from  the  limited  sphere  on  which 
they  were  now  exhibited,  and  from  the  restraint  which 
had  been  put  on  the  passions  inherent  in  human 
nature. 

Even  in  their  external  appearence  the  Cistercians  were 
distinguished  from  their  brethren,  having  exchanged  the 
original  black  garment  of  the  monks  for  one  of  white. 
This  widened  the  brea^^h,  for  the  rivals  could  not  now 
meet  without  immediately  recognizing  each  other.  But 
the  superiors  of  the  two  orders,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux, 
and  Peter  of  Clugni,  possessed  too  much  elevation  of 
mind,  and  had  formed  too  just  an  estimate  of  the  vital 

VOL     VIII.  G 


62  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

character  of  religion,  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  swayed 
by  these  passions,  or  to  become  enemies  on  account  of 
external  differences..  When  at  any  time  they  were 
alienated  by  contending  interests,  the  gentle  and  amiable 
Peter  was  always  ready  to  make  the  first  advances 
towards  reconciliation,  and  thus  their  original  friendship 
was  soon  restored.  They  were  united  in  the  bonds  of 
mutual  esteem  and  affection,  and  Peter  rejoiced  in  the 
universal  veneration  which  Bernard  attracted  ;  in  affairs 
of  moment  they  were  always  found  to  co-operate.  They 
had  both  expressed  their  views  of  the  reciprocal  relation 
of  the  two  orders,  in  several  papers  drawn  up  for  the 
purpose  of  exposing  the  defects  of  each,  and  of  clearing 
the  way  for  a  just  estimate  of  existing  differences ;  and 
in  the  hope  of  promoting  mutual  love  and  due  mode- 
ration. 

The  venerable  abbot  of  Clugni,  in  one  of  his  letters 
written  to  Bernard  to  solicit  his  co-operation  in  composing 
differences  between  the  rival  orders,  lays  down  as  a  principle 
the  fact  of  differences  with  regard  to  external  usages 
having  at  all  times  existed  between  different  Churches, 
without  operating  to  the  hindrance  of  mutual  love,  since 
they  involved  nothing  prejudicial  either  to  faith  or  love. 
And  thus  it  ought  to  be  with  the  members  of  both  orders, 
since  both  were  striving,  through  the  medium  of  the 
different  practices  by  which  they  were  severally  distin- 
guished, to  attain  the  same  object,  even  eternal  life.  It 
was  true,  indeed,  that  though  both  Cistercians  and 
Clugniacs  were  governed  by  the  same  Benedictine  rule, 
they  differed  in  its  application,  and  deviated  from  the 
letter  of  the  rule  ;  but  since  the  motive  in  which  all  had 
originated  was  the  first  thing  to  be  considered,  Christian 
love  as  the  soul  of  all  actions  must  decide  as  to  the 
application  of  the  law.  In  support  of  this,  he  quotes  the 
words  of  the  Saviour,  "  If  thine  eje  be  single,  thy  whole 
body  is  full  of  light,"  and  the  sublime  and  faithful  saying 
of  Augustine,  "  Habe  caritatem,  et  fac  quicquid  vis." 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  63 

He  carries  this  principle  still  further  in  a  letter  written 
to  Bernard,  to  defend  his  brethren  against  the  imputa- 
tions of  the  Cistercians.  In  order  to  justify  them  from 
the  reproach  of  having  departed  from  the  Benedictine 
rule,  he  appeals  to  the  practice  of  many  councils  and 
popes,  whereby  the  old  ecclesiastical  laws  had  been 
modified  and  altered,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to  the  circum- 
stances and  exigencies  of  the  times.  Then,  assuming 
his  opponent  to  have  answered  this  by  the  allegation  of 
greater  authority  and  sanctity;  he  rejoins  that  his  order 
also  numbered  among  its  members,  men  who  were 
honoured  by  the  Church  as  saints  ;  but  that  the  ques- 
tion here  was  not  one  of  sanctity,  but  of  authority,  and 
that  in  this  respect  the  authority  of  the  abbots  of  Clugni 
was  as  absolute  in  their  order,  as  that  of  bishops  in  their 
particular  sees,  or  of  popes  in  the  Church  at  large.  In 
general,  however,  neither  sanctity  nor  authority  suBced 
for  the  justification  of  these  changes,  since  the  holiness 
and  authority  of  the  successors  might  not  be  brought 
into  consideration  with  the  holiness  and  authority  of 
those  whom  they  had  succeeded ;  either  the  former 
practice  needed  to  be  changed,  or  that  which  has 
superseded  it  must  be  evil.  It  was  requisite  then  to 
have  a  rule  by  which  these  changes  might  be  judged, 
and  by  which  the  earlier  and  later  revelations  of  God 
and  the  laws  of  the  Church  might,  where  they  differed  in 
the  letter,  be  made  to  agree  in  the  spirit,  and  this  rule  is 
love.  Love  is  free  in  all  her  actions,  and  is  occupied  in 
ministering  to  the  welfare  of  mankind,  according  to  the 
various  wants,  and  the  differing  circumstances  of  divers 
times ;  it  is  for  her,  therefore,  to  give  and  to  change 
laws.  The  lawgivers  of  the  Church  are  but  the  sec- 
retaries of  this  love,  for  this  love  is  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  although  her  laws  may  vary,  yet  in  her  is  "no 
variableness,  nor  shadow  of  turning,"  for  she  remaineth 
ever  the  same.  The  Cistercians  themselves  are  the  real 
violators  of  the  rule  of  Benedict,  since  they  infringe  th§ 


64  PETER  THE  VENERABLE. 

law  of  love,  by  adhering  pertinaciousl}',  and  to  the  per- 
judice  of  their  brethren,  to  those  outward  things,  which  are 
to  be  adapted  to  the  different  circumstances  of  mankind. 
(The  councils  might,  indeed,  have  been  called  the  organs 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  if  they  had  been  possessed  with  this 
spirit,  this  idea  of  a  progressive  and  self-developing 
Church,  for  there  would  then  have  been  no  danger  of 
their  confounding  the  mutable  with  the  immutable, 
human  forms  with  divine  revelations,  and  of  fettering 
the  spirit  with  the  letter.) 

We  proceed  to  give  some  further  extracts  from  his 
letter,  on  account  of  the  characteristic  peculiarities  of 
the  imputations  cast  upon  the  monks  of  Clugni,  with 
the  grounds  on  which  these  are  refuted  by  Peter. 
"  The  monks,"  it  was  urged  against  the  Clugniacs, 
"  should  present  the  image  of  an  apostolic  fellowship  ; 
they  should  have  no  property,  but  should  live  by  the 
labour  of  their  hands ;  they  should  not  possess  parish 
churches,  tithes,  or  first-fruits,  as  do  the  Clugniacs;  for 
these  belong  of  right  to  the  clergy,  by  whom  the  churches 
are  served."  To  this,  Peter  replies,  "  Who  has  the 
greater  right  to  the  oblations  of  the  faithful ;  the  monks 
who  are  continually  supplicating  God  for  sinners:  or  the 
clergy,  who,  as  we  see  at  this  time,  devote  themselves 
entirely  to  the  eager  pursuit  of  earthly  things ;  to  the 
total  neglect  of  their  spiritual  calling,  and  the  salvation 
of  souls?"  But,  an  accusation  of  a  still  more  formidable 
character  was  brought  against  the  Clugniacs,  that  of  having 
indiscriminately  received  as  gifts — castles,  townships, 
peasants,  serfs,  maidens,  tolls,  and  of  having  defended 
themselves  in  the  possession  of  the  same  without  scruple 
against  all  aggressors.  To  this,  Peter  replied,  "  That 
these  possessions  were  turned  to  far  better  account,  and 
the  peasants  far  better  treated  by  the  monks,  than  they 
had  previously  been.  The  manner  in  which  the  tem- 
poral lords  exercise  their  power  over  their  bond  serfs,  is 
a  matter  of  notoriety.     Not  content  with  their  customary 


PETER  THE  VENERABLE.  65 

and  bond  service,  they  appropriate  to  themselves  the 
goods  with  the  persons,  and  the  persons  together  with 
the  goods ;  and  thus  it  is,  that  after  having  made  the 
usual  deductions,  they  come  and  plunder  these  unhappy 
people  three  or  four  times  in  the  year,  or  as  oft  as  they 
will ;  they  oppress  them  with  innumerable  services,  laying 
upon  them  heavy  burdens,  grievous  to  be  borne,  so  that 
at  last  they  force  them  to  abandon  their  native  homes, 
and  to  seek  shelter  in  a  foreign  land.  And  what  is  still 
more  abominable,  they  do  not  scruple  to  sell  the  men 
whom  Christ  hath  made  free,  and  purchased  at  the  cost 
of  His  own  blood,  in  exchange  for  so  vile  a  thing  as  gold. 
The  monks,  on  the  contrary,  only  avail  themselves  of  their 
bond  and  moderate  service,  in  order  to  procure  the  neces- 
saries of  life  ;  and  instead  of  vexing  them  with  deduc- 
tions, they  sustain  them  in  poverty,  from  their  own  stores  ; 
in  a  word,  they  treat  their  vassals  as  brothers  and  sisters." 
In  another  letter  he  writes  to  Bernard  : — "  It  has  long 
grieved  me  sore,  that  men,  who  to  this  very  hour  are  in 
hunger  and  thirst,  in  cold  and  nakedness,  labouring  with 
their  hands,  and  in  all  things  following  the  holy  Paul, 
should  yet,  while  they  perform  the  weightier  matters, 
leave  the  lighter  undone.  And  thou  art  one  of  those. 
Thou  keepest  the  hard  commands  of  Christ,  in  fasting, 
watching,  weariness,  and  labour,  and  yet  thou  disre- 
gardest  that  easy  one,  of  love."  He  then  calls  upon 
Bernard  to  exert  his  influence  with  the  Cistercians  so  far 
as  at  least  to  induce  them  to  receive  their  brethren  of 
Clugni  into  their  convents,  even  although  they  should 
persist  in  the  use  of  the  customs  and  the  dress  which 
had  first  given  rise  to  their  divisions,  that  so  by  frequent 
interchange  of  good  offices,  mutual  love  might  be  re- 
stored. He  had  himself  made  this  concession  fifteen 
years  before,  with  regard  to  all  the  convents  of  his  order, 
excepting  that  of  Clugni,  and  he  now  offered  to  extend 
the  privilege  to  that  chief  convent,  if  his  request  were 
complied  with. 

G  3 


C6  PETER,  COMESTOR. 

In  the  year  1140,  Peter  afforded  an  asylum  to  Peter 
Abelard,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  hfe  of  that  too  cele- 
brated person. 

So  high  was  his  reputation  for  wisdom  and  prudence, 
that,  in  the  year  1145,  Pope  Eugenius  sent  for  him  into 
Italy,  in  order  to  endeavour,  by  his  admonitions  and 
councils,  to  reconcile  the  hostile  factions  which  had  in- 
volved the  Tuscan  territories  in  civil  war ;  but  their 
obstinacy  and  inveterate  enmity  rendered  all  his  efforts 
for  that  purpose  ineffectual.  In  the  year  1150,  having 
occasion  to  take  a  journey  to  Rome,  on  business  relating 
to  his  monastery,  he  was  received  there  with  the  highest 
honours  by  Pope  Eugenius,  and  the  Roman  citizens. 
He  died  at  Clugni,  in  1156,  when  he  was  about  63  years 
of  age. 

He  acquired  the  surname  of  Venerable  from  the  great 
seriousness  and  gravity  of  his  demeanour.  He  procured 
the  Koran  to  be  translated  out  of  the  Arabic  into  Latin, 
and  wrote  a  treatise  in  four  books  against  the  Mahome- 
tans. He  was  also  the  author  of  several  other  polemical 
pieces,  against  the  Jews,  Petrobrusians,  &c.,  and  various 
miscellaneous  writings,  in  prose  and  verse.  His  works 
were  first  published  at  Ingoldstadt,  in  1546;  and  after- 
wards at  Paris,  w^ith  the  notes  of  Duchesne  and  Marrier, 
in  the  year  1614.  The  edition  last  mentioned  has  been 
inserted  in  the  22nd  vol.  of  the  Bibl.  Patr.  Two  of 
his  Letters,  not  before  edited,  were  printed  by  Father 
Mabillon,  in  the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Analecta ;  and  a  third 
by  DAchery,  in  the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Spicileg.  (Com- 
pare the  lives  of  St.  Bernard  and  of  Abelard.) — Cave. 
Neafiders  Life  of  Bernard. 


PETER,     G0ME3T0R. 

CoMESTOR"  Peter,  or  Peter  the  Eater,  was  a  native'of 
TroyeS;  in  Champagne,  where  he  flourished  in  the  12th 


PETER,  COMESTOR.  G7 

century.  He  was  Canon  and  afterwards  Dean  in  the 
Cathedral  Church  in  his  native  city,  whence  he  was 
removed  to  the  Deanery  of  Notre  Dame,  in  Paris.  This 
benefice  he  resigned  to  enter  a  regular  Canon  of  St. 
Victor,  in  Paris.  He  died  in  1198,  having  directed  the 
following  epitaph  to  be  placed  on  his  tomb  : — 

Petrus  eram,  quern  Petra  tegit,  dictusque  Comestor. 
Nunc  comedor.     Vivus  docui,  nee  cesso  docere 
Mortuus  ;  ut  dicant,  qui  me  vident  incineratum, 
"  Quod  sumus,  iste  fuit,  erimus,  quandoque  quod  hie  est." 

Geraldus  Cambrensis  was  one  of  his  pupils,  and  he 
inspired  his  pupil  with  his  own  hatred  of  the  monks. 
In  a  manuscript  of  that  author,  preserved  in  the  archie- 
piscopal  library  at  Lambeth,  he  tells  us  that  he  heard 
Peter  declare  before  his  whole  school,  in  which  many 
persons  of  distinguished  literature  were  present,  that 
the  old  enemy,  meaning  the  devil,  never  insidiously 
devised  a  more  injurious  measure  against  the  Church 
of  God,  than  the  law  which  enjoined  a  vow  of  celibacy  on 
the  clergy.  He  openly  and  truly  censured  other  sins  in 
practice  and  errors  in  doctrine  prevalent  in  the  middle 
ages.  He  was  the  author  of  Historiae  Ecclesiasticse  Lib. 
XVI.,  containing  a  summary  of  sacred  history,  from  the 
beginning  of  Genesis  to  the  end  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  intermixed  with  numerous  passages  fiom 
profane  history,  and  some  fabulous  narrations.  It  was 
fii'st  published  at  Reutlingen,  in  1473,  and  afterwards 
underwent  repeated  impressions  at  Strasburg,  Basle, 
Lyons,  and  other  places.  He  also  wrote.  Sermons  ;  and 
a  work  entitled,  Catena  Tempor^n:'.  &c,,  consisting  of 
an  indigested  compilation  of  universal  history,  published 
at  Lubeck  in  1475,  in  2  v. Is.  fol. ;  of  which  a  French 
translation  was  printed  at  Paris,  in  1488,  in  2  vois.  folio, 
under  the  title  of  Mer  des  Histoires. — Cave.  Dupin. 
Moreri. 


68  PETIT. 


PETIT,    MATTHEW    DIDIER. 

Matthew  Didier  Petit  was  born  at  St.  Nicholas,  in 
Loraine,  in  1659,  and  was  educated  at  the  Jesuit  College 
at  Nancy.  He  took  the  monastic  habit  as  a  Benedictine 
in  his  seventeenth  year.  In  1682,  he  was  appointed 
lecturer  in  philosophy  and  Divinity,  by  the  chapter 
general  of  the  congregation  of  St.  Vannes  and  St. 
Hydulphus,  to  which  he  belonged.  He  afterwards 
presided  over  an  academy  in  which  certain  monks  of 
the  Benedictine  order  engaged,  under  his  direction,  to 
read  all  the  fathers  of  the  Church.  As  is  the  case  with 
most  students  of  the  fathers,  they  commenced  with 
Dupin's  ecclesiastical  writers,  to  whom  the  readers  of 
these  volumes  are  so  much  indebted.  Petit-Didier  wrote 
notes  on  this  celebrated  work  and  published  them  under 
the  title  of  Piemarks  on  the  first  volumes  of  M.  Dupin's 
Bibliotheque  Ecclesiastique,  in  3  vols,  8vo,  the  first  of 
which  appeared  in  169JI,  and  the  third  in  1696.  He 
afterwards  published  an  answer  to  the  Dialogues  between 
Cleander  and  Eudoxus,  written  against  the  celebrated 
Provincial  Letters  of  Pascal,  and  attributed  to  father 
Daniel,  the  Jesuit.  This  answer  is  under  the  form  of 
seventeen  letters,  with  the  title  of,  An  Apology  for  the 
Provincial  Letters  of  Lewis  Mental te,  against  the  last 
Reply  of  the  Jesuits,  &c.,  IQmo.  About  1700  he  pub- 
lished in  Latin,  Critical,  Historical,  and  Chronological 
Dissertations  on  the  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  4to.  In  1715,  he  was  chosen  Abbot  of  Senones. 
In  1724,  he  published  A  Theological  Treatise  in  Defence 
of  the  Authority  and  Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  12mo. 
This  piece  was  attacked  by  different  writers,  Romanist 
and  Protestant,  and  defended  by  him  in  several  tracts.  In 
1725,  he  visited  Rome,  where  he  was  favourably  received 
by  Benedict  XIII. ,  on  account  of  his  writings,  in  which 
he  had  maintained  the  infallibility  and  highest  preten- 


PEZELIUS.  69 

sions  of  the  papal  see,  and  declared  hostility  against 
the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  Church.  As  a  reward  for 
such  obsequiousness,  in  1726  the  Pope  nominated  him 
Bishop  of  Macra,  in  partibus  infidelium.  He  died  in 
1728,  and  was  succeeded  by  Calmet.  He  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  author  of  an  Historical  and  Dogmatical 
Treatise  on  Ecclesiastical  Privileges  and  Exemptions, 
which  was  printed  at  Metz,  in  1699,  in  4to. — Moreri. 


PEZELIUS,    CHBISTOPHER. 

Christopher  Pezelius  w^as  born  in  the  year  1539,  at 
Plauen,  in  the  Voightland.  He  is  chiefly  distinguished 
for  the  part  he  took  with  certain  of  the  Saxon  theologians 
for  changing  the  doctrine  of  his  Church  (the  Lutheran)  on 
the  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  They  wished  to  introduce 
the  Calvinistic  view  and  were  called  Crypto-Calvinists. 
He  shewed  great  zeal  ih  the  cayse  and  composed  a  Cate- 
chism. He  was,  of  course,  subject  to  prosecution,  and 
retired  to  Egra,  in  Bohemia,  and  afterwards  became 
principal  of  a  seminary  at  Siegen,  and  finally  Pastor  of 
Herbon.  How  long  he  retained  that  situation  we  are 
not  informed,  but  we  find  that  he  was  professor  of 
divinity  at  Bremen,  in  the  year  1588,  and  was  also 
superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  that  district.  These 
posts  he  held  till  his  death  in  1604,  when  he  was  about 
65  years  of  age.  He  was  the  author  of  Commentarium 
in  Genesin,  1599,  8vo;  Enarratio  priorum  Capitum 
Evangelii  Johannis,  1586,  8vo;  Compendium  Theo- 
logise ;  Epitomen  Philosophise  Moralis ;  Mellificium 
Historicum,  forming  a  large  commentary  on  Sleidan's 
treatise  De  quatuor  monarchiis,  1610,  4to,  in  two  parts, 
to  which  a  third  was  afterwards  added  by  Lampidus ; 
Consilia  et  Judicia  Theol.  Philippi  Melanchthonis, 
consisting  of  extracts  from  Melanchthon's  works,  with 
objections   and    answers    on   subjects   of    a  theological 


70  PFAFF. 

nature,  the  whole  intermixed  with  Schoha,  and  extend- 
ing to  seven  or  eight  octavo  vokimes ;  besides  a  multi- 
tude of  controversial  pieces. — Bayle.     Mureri. 


PFAFF,    CHRISTOPHER    MATTHEW. 

Christopher  Matthew  Pfaff  was  born  at  Stuttgard,  in 
1G86,  and  was  educated  at  Tubingen,  where  his  father, 
John  Christopher  Pfaff,  author  of  a  dissertation  De 
AUegatis  Veteris  Testamenti,  was  Divinity  professor. 
In  early  life  he  travelled  at  the  expense  of  the  Duke  of 
Wurtemberg,  and,  among  other  places,  visited  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford. 

In  1717,  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Divinity  at 
Tubingen,  being  the  colleague  of  his  father,  w'hom  he 
succeeded  as  Dean  of  the  Church.  Afterw^ards  he  be- 
came chancellor,  and  first  professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
university  ;  and  the  emperor  made  him  a  count-palatine, 
and  gave  him  the  extraordinary  power  of  creating  doctors 
of  Divinity.  In  1727,  he  was  nominated  Abbot  of 
Laureac;  and  in  1731  he  was  appointed  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Academy  at  Berlin. 

He  published,  Dissertatio  critica  de  genuinis  Librorum 
Novi  Testamenti  Lectionibus,  ope  Canonum  quorundam 
feliciter  indagandis;  ubi  et  inter  alia  de  Joannis  Millii 
Collectione  variarum  Novi  Testamenti  Lectionum  modeste 
disseritur,  1709,  8vo  ;  Firmiani  Lactantii  Epitome  In- 
stitutionum  divinarum,  &c.,  anonymi  Historia  de  Hseresi 
Manichaeorum,  &c.,  ex  Codicib.  Taurinens,  1713,  8vo ; 
Sancti  Irenaei  Episcopi  Lugdunensis,  Fragmenta  Anec- 
dota,  ex  Biblioth.  Taurin.  eruta,  Latina  Versione  et  Notis 
illustrata,  &c.,  1715,  Svo  ;  Primitise  Tubigenses  ;  Insti- 
tutiones  Theologiae  dograaticae  et  moralis ;  Introductio 
in  Historiam  Theologiae  literariam,  1718,  4to,  and  after- 
wards greatly  enlarged ;  Syntagma  Dissertationum 
Theologicarum,     1720,    Svo;      Institutiones     Historiae 


PFEIFFER,  AUGUSTUS.  71 

Ecclesiasticse,  cum  Dissert,  de  Liturgiis,  17'21,  8vo ; 
Notse  Exegeticae  in  Evangelium  Matthsei,  1721,  4to ; 
Historia  Formulae  Consensus  Helveticae,  1722,  4to ; 
Collectio  Scriptorum  Irenicorum  de  Unione  inter 
Protestantes  faciendum ;  Ecclesiae  Evangelicae  Libri 
Symboli,  cum  variantibus  Lectionibus  et  Notis,  1730, 
8vo;  numerous  critical  remarks  and  observations  in  the 
edition  of  the  German  Bible  printed  at  Tubingen  in 
1729;  Dissertationes  anti-Bselianse  tres ;  and  various 
other  controversial  treatises.     He  died  in  1760. — Moreri. 


PFEIFFEK,    AUGUSTUS. 

Augustus  Pfeiffee  was  born  in  1640,  at  Lauenburg,  in 
Lower  Saxony.  He  received  his  primary  education  at 
Lauenburg,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Hamburg  and 
Wittemberg.  At  the  latter  place,  in  1668,  he  was 
appointed  professor  of  oriental  languages.  After  pas- 
sing through  various  preferments,  he  was,  in  1690, 
elected  superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  the  district 
©f  Lubeck  ;  which  station  he  held  till  his  death,  in  1698. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  variety  of  works,  in  sacred  criti- 
cism and  Jewish  antiquities,  the  principal  of  which  are, 
Critica  Sacra,  de  sacri  Codicis  Partitione,  Editionibus 
variis  Linguis  orientalibus,  Puritate  Fontium,  Interpre- 
tatione  sacrse  Scripturse  legitima,  Translationibus,  Masora, 
Cabala,  &c. ;  Tres  Dissertationes  de  Targumim,  sive 
Paraphrasibus  Chaldaicis  Vet.  Test,  de  Massora,  sive 
Critica  Sacra  Hebraeorum,  de  Trihseresio  Judaeorum, 
sive  de  Pharisaeis,  Sadducaeis,  et  Essaeis,  &c. ;  Sciagraphia 
Systematis  Antiquitatum  Hebraicarum,  Lib.  VIII.  ; 
Thesaurus  Hermeneuticus,  seu  de  legitima  Scripturae 
Sacrae  Interpretatione  Tractatio ;  Decades  duae  selectae 
Positionum  philologicarum  de  antiquis  Judaeorum 
Ritibus  et  Moribus;  Dubia  vexata  sacrae  Scripturae 
sive  Loca  difficiliora  Veteris  Tcstamenti  succincte  decisa 


72  PHILOSTORGIUS. 

quatuor  Centuriis ;  Commentarius  in  Obadiam,  praeter 
genuini  Sensus  Evolutionem  et  Collationem,  exhibens 
Versionem  Latinam  et  Exaraen  Commentarii  Don.  Isaaci 
Abrabarnelis,  &c. ;  Praelectiones  in  Jonae  Propbetiam 
recognitae  et  in  justum  Commentarium  redactse.  Several 
of  the  preceding  articles  were  afterwards  collected  to- 
gether, and  published  in  1704,  in  2  vols,  4to. — Moreri. 
Le  Long. 


PFLUG,    JULIUS. 

Julius  Pflug  was  born  about  the  year  1490,  but  the 
place  of  his  birth  is  unknown.  He  was  Bishop  of 
Naumberg  in  the  Palatinate.  He  is  chiefly  distin- 
guished for  being  one  of  the  three  divines  employed 
by  Charles  V.  in  drawing  up  the  famous  project  of  the 
Interim.  He  presided  as  his  representative  in  the  Diets 
of  the  empire  at  Ratisbon.  He  died  in  1564.  He  was 
the  author  of  Institutio  Christiana  Ecclesise  Numbur- 
gensis ;  De  Reipublicse  Institutione  ad  Principes  et 
Populum  Germanise  ;  De  Institutione  Hominis  Chris- 
tiani ;  De  Justicia  et  Salute  Christiani  Hominis ;  De 
vero  Dei  cultu ;  De  Creatione  Mundi ;  and  several 
doctrinal  and  controversial  treatises  in  Latin  and 
German. — Moreri. 


PHILOSTORGIUS. 

Of  PHILOSTORGIUS,  Mr.  Dowling,  in  his  introduction  to 
the  critical  study  of  ecclesiastical  history,  writes  thus : — 
Though  the  Arian  controversy  was  terminated  in  the 
east  by  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  it  was  but  natural 
that  some  of  the  zealous  adherents  of  the  sects  which 
had  so  long  distracted  Christendom,  should  give  expres- 
sion to  the  sentiments  of  vexation  and  disappointment 
with  which  they  regarded  the  triumph  of  their  orthodox 


PHILOTHEUS.  73 

opponents.  Among  the  writers  whose  zeal  thus  prevailed 
over  their  prudence  was  Philostorgius,  who  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  to  discover  the  value  of  Ecclesiastical 
History  as  a  controversial  weapon,  and  to  employ  it  in 
a  regular  and  systematic  attack  on  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  He  was  a  native  of  Cappadocia,  and  was  born 
in  368.  He  entertained  the  opinions  of  Eunomius,  and 
regarded  the  Semi-Arians  with  no  less  hostility  than  the 
friends  of  Athanasius.  He  began  his  work  with  the  rise 
of  Arianism,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
brought  it  down  to  the  year  425.  It  no  longer  exists 
entire.  But  the  very  copious  extracts,  which  we  owe  to 
Photius,  though  they  give  us  no  adequate  notion  of 
what  it  was  as  a  whole,  nor  enable  us  to  judge  for  our- 
selves of  its  literary  merits,  amply  confirm  his  remark' 
that  it  "  is  less  a  history  than  an  encomium  upon  the 
heretics,  and  a  mere  accusation  and  vituperation  of  the 
orthodox."  Great,  however,  as  are  the  prejudices  of 
Philostorgius,  it  is  highly  satisfactory  to  have  the  Arian 
view  of  the  great  events  of  this  period  ;  and  the  remains 
of  his  work,  whatever  may  have  been  its  actual  merit, 
are  of  no  inconsiderable  value  for  illustrating  the  history 
of  the  fourth  century. 

PHILOTHEUS. 

Phtlotheus  was  a  native  of  Greece  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  lived  as  a  monk,  first  at  Mount  Sinai,  and 
afterwards  at  Mount  Athol.  Of  the  last  named  monastery 
he  became  abbot.  He  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of 
Heraclea,  and  in  1355  was  appointed  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  died  about  1371.  He  was  the  author 
of  Ordo  sacri  Ministerii,  published  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
by  James  Gear,  in  his  Ritulale  Grsecor.,  and  inserted  in 
the  xxvith  vol.  of  the  Bibl.  Patr. ;  De  Praeceptis  Domini 
Capitula  XXI.,  edited  in  Greek  and  Latin,  by  Peter 
Ponssines,  in  his  Thesaur.  Ascet.  ;  Sermo  encomiasticus 

VOL.  VIII.  H 


74  PHILPOT. 

in  tres  Hierarcbas,  Basilium,  Gregorium  Theologum,  et 
Joannem  Chn-sostomum,  published  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
by  James  Pontanus,  together  with  the  Dioptra  of  Phibp 
the  Solitary,  and  inserted  in  the  second  yob  of  Fronton 
du  Due's  Auctuar.  Patr. ;  two  Orations,  one,  De  Cruce, 
and  the  other,  In  tertiam  Jejuniorum  Dominicam,  edited 
in  Greek  and  Latin  by  Gesner,  in  the  second  vob  of  his 
treatise  De  Cruce. — Biofj.  Universelle. 


PHILPOT,    JOHN. 

John  Philpot  was  born  in  1511,  at  Compton,  in  Hamp- 
shire, and  was  educated  at  the  two  St.  Mary  Winton 
Colleges  of  William  of  W3dveham.  He  was  admitted 
fellow  of  New^  College  in  1534,  and  in  1541  he  forfeited 
liis  fellowship  "  because  of  absence,  being  then  on  his 
travels."  Italy  was  the  country  into  which  he  travelled, 
and  he  dwelt  principally  at  Rome.  When  Philpot 
returned  to  England,  he  gave  unequivocal  evidence  that 
liis  religious  views  were  totally  different  from  those  in 
which  he  had  been  nurtured.  This  change  had  begun 
to  work  for  several  years  before  he  travelled  to  Italy  : 
it  was  matured  and  deepened  by  his  residence  in  that 
country,  and  its  plain  fruits  appeared,  when,  upon  his 
return,  he  read  lectures  upon  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  tlie 
Iiomans  in  the  Cathedral  of  Winchester,  "which,  though 
gratis,"  says  Anthony  Wood,  "  were  not  acceptable  to 
tho  Cathedral  clergy  or  the  citizens  of  that  place." 
'J'here  is  no  record  to  fix  the  period  at  which  ho  entered 
into  holy  orders  ;  it  is  pretty  clear  that  he  had  not  taken 
that  step  before  he  went  abroad  ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
he  did  not  long  defer  it  after  his  return,  because  he 
seems  to  have  come  back  with  all  his  doubts  removed, 
and  his  mind  finally  made  up  as  to  the  principles  which 
he  would  advocate. 

The  advancement  of  Philpot  to  the   Archdeaconry   of 


PHILPOT.  -  75 

Winchester  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth ; 
but  the  precise  time  cannot  be  ascertained.  His  prede- 
cessor was  William  Bolen,  who  had  succeeded  to  the 
office  in  1528,  upon  the  resignation  of  Richard  Pates, 
who  became  Bishop  of  Worcester,  Bolen  held  the 
office  of  Archdeacon  for  twenty  years  ;  a  duration  which 
was  in  affecting  contrast  to  the  brief  and  suffering  space 
permitted  to  his  successor.  It  appears  that  Bishop 
Gardiner  had  nominated  him,  prospectively,  to  the  office 
of  Archdeacon  ;  a  promise  which  we  might  be  inclined 
to  suppose  had  been  given  many  years  before ;  since  it 
^vould  appear  improbable  that  that  prelate  would  have 
shewn  any  favour  to  him  after  his  principles  had  become 
so  changed  as  they  w^ere  on  his  return  from  Italy.  But 
however  this  may  be,  the  nomination  which  Gardiner 
had  given  him,  it  was  left  to  his  successor  to  make  good. 
If  Gardiner  had  been  mistaken  in  his  man,  not  so 
Bishop  Ponet,  who  found  inPhilpotall  he  desired.  But 
the  Archdeaconry  was  not  to  be  a  resting-place  for  his 
feet.  A  misunderstanding  arose  between  him  and  the 
Bishop,  through  the  malicious  interference  of  one  of  that 
prelate's  officials.  Let  Strype  tell  the  story  of  this 
quarrel:  "There  was,"  writes  that  historian,  "in  the 
latter  end  of  King  Edward,  an  unhappy  difference 
started  between  Ponet,  the  learned  Bishop  of  Winton, 
and  Philpot;  fomented  and  devised  by  Cook  the  register,  a 
man  that  hated  pure  religion,  He  informed  the  said 
Bishop,  whether  true  or  false  I  know  not,  that  there  was 
a  yearly  pension  due  to  him  from  the  Archdeacon,  This 
was  causing  contention  amongst  them,  hence  intolerable 
troubles  arose,  and  slanders  in  that  diocese  to  them  both  ; 
while  so  good  a  Bishop,  at  the  setting  on  of  so  rank  a 
knave,  could  find  in  his  heart  to  vex  his  brother,  so  con- 
spicuous both  for  learning  and  for  life.  Another  instance 
of  Cook's  malice  towards  the  Archdeacon  was  this :  Cook, 
having  married  a  lady,  rode  with  more  men  than  the 
Archdeacon   himself;    and    taking    this   opportunity   of 


76  PHILPOT. 

number  of  attendance,  once  forestalled  the  way  between 
Winchester  and  Mr.  Philpot's  sister's  house,  about  three 
miles  from  the  said  citj,  whither  he  was  going;  and, 
lying  in  wait  for  him,  set  his  men  upon  him  and  sore 
beat  him,  overdone  by  number ;  for  otherwise  the  Arch- 
deacon had  as  lusty  a  courage  to  defend  himself,  as  in 
disputation  against  Popish  prelates  to  impugn  their 
doctrine.  But  though  he  was  thus  beaten,  hurt  and 
wounded,  yet  remedy  could  he  have  none  in  the  spiritual 
court,  the  Bishop,  as  well  as  this  his  register,  being  in 
contest  with  him." 

In  the  year  1553,  Mary  ascended  the  throne,  and  the 
convocation  met  on  the  tenth  of  October. 

When  the  business  of  the  convocation  commenced, 
(either  on  the  16th  or  18th  of  October,  1553)  two  ques- 
tions were  first  proposed  for  consideration,  the  forty-two 
Articles,  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  :  and  with 
the  former  question  was  associated  the  Catechism  which 
had  been  published  a  short  time  before  King  Edward  s 
death.  On  Friday  the  20th  of  October,  Weston  the 
prolocutor,  presented  to  the  house  two  bills,  which  had 
ah'eady  obtained  his  own  signature ;  in  the  one  of 
which,  treating  of  the  Catechism,  that  formulary  was 
described  as  "  pestiferous  and  full  of  heresies,"  as 
having  been  "  foisted  upon  the  last  synod  fraudulently, 
and  therefore  that  the  present  synod  disowned  it."  It 
was  for  his  firm  refusal  to  sign  the  document  which 
branded  a  Catechism  that  had  both  truth  and  synodal 
authority  on  its  side,  quite  as  much  as  for  his  resistance 
to  transubstantiation  and  the  mass,  that  Philpot,  at  the 
close  of  this  convocation,  was  visited  with  the  penalties 
which  lighted  on  his  head. 

He  was  apprehended  and,  after  various  Examinations 
before  Bonner  and  a  rigorous  imprisonment  of  eighteen 
months,  was  condemned  to  be  burnt  in  Smithfield. 

We  have  his  own  account  of  his  Examinations,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  documents  of  Antiquity  throw- 


PHILPOT.  77 

ing  much  light  on  the  manners  of  the  times.  Philpot's 
ready  wit  and  learning  are  very  remarkable,  though  his 
temper  was  evidently  too  disputatious.  His  opponents 
seem  to  have  reiterated  the  same  arguments  and  asser- 
tions and  do  not  appear  to  advantage.  But  it  is 
evident  that  though  they  had  determined  to  burn  him 
if  he  did  not  recant ;  they  all  of  them  wished  to  save 
him.  Bonner,  on  one  occasion  said  to  him,  "  I  per- 
ceive you  are  learned  :  I  would  have  such  as  you  be 
about  me.  But  you  must  come  and  be  of  the  Church ; 
for  there  is  but  one  Church."  Philpot  replied,  "  God 
forbid  I  should  be  out  of  the  Church !  I  am  sure 
I  am  within  the  same  ;  for  I  know,  as  I  am  taught 
by  the  Scripture,  that  there  is  but  one  catholic  Church, 
one  dove,  one  spouse,  one  beloved  congregation,  out  of 
the  w'hich  there  is  no  salvation," 

it  appears  that  he  did  not  carry  the  notion  of  the  royal 
supremacy  to  an  extreme,  from  the  following  colloquy 
between  him  and  Dr.  Cook.  Being  asked  by  Mr. 
Cholmley,  "  Will  you  not  agree  that  the  queens 
majesty  may  cause  you  to  be  examined  of  your  faith  ?" 
Philpot  answered,  "  Ask  you  of  master  doctor  Cook, 
and  he  will  tell  you  that  the  temporal  magistrates  have 
nothing  to  do  with  matters  of  faith,  for  determination 
thereof.  And  St.  Ambrose  saith,  that  the  things  of  God 
are  not  subject  to  the  power  and  authority  of  princes." 
Cook  exclaimed,  "  No !  may  not  the  temporal  power 
commit  you  to  be  examined  of  your  faith  to  the  bishop !" 
Philpot  rejoined,  "  Yea,  sir,  I  deny  not  that.  But  you 
will  not  grant,  that  the  same  may  examine  any  of  their 
own  authority." 

Again,  Bonner  asking  him  why  he  had  not  replied  to 
the  queen's  commissioners,  Philpot  replied,  "  For  that 
they  were  temporal  men,  and  ought  not  to  be  judges 
in  spiritual  causes,  whereof  they  demanded  me,  without 
shewing  any  authority  whereby  I  was  bound  to  answer 
them;  and  hereupon  they  committed  me  to  your  prison." 
H    3 


78  PHILPOT. 

The  following  conversation  is  of  mucli  interest : — 

Bonner, — "  Is  there  any  more  Churches  than  one 
Catholic  Church?  And.  I  pray  you,  tell  me  into  what 
faith  you  were  bajDtized  ?" 

Philpot, — "  I  acknowledge  One  Holy  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church,  whereof  I  am  a  member  (I  praise 
God,)  and  am  of  that  catholic  Church  of  Christ  where- 
unto  I  was  baptized." 

Coventry, — "  I  pray  you,  can  you  tell  what  this  word 
'  catholic'  doth  signify?    shew,  if  you  can." 

Philpot, — "Yes,  that  I  can,  I  thank  God.  The 
catholic  faith,  or  the  catholic  Church,  is  not  as  now  a 
days  the  people  be  taught,  to  be  that  w'hich  is  most 
universal,  or  of  most  part  of  men  received,  whereby 
you  do  infer  our  faith  to  hang  upon  the  multitude, 
which  is  not  so  ;  but  I  esteem  the  catholic  Church  to 
be  as  St.  Augustine  defineth  the  same:  'We  judge,' 
saith  he,  '  the  catholic  faith,  of  that  which  hath  been, 
is,  and  shall  be.'  So  that,  if  you  can  be  able  to 
prove  that  your  Faith  and  Church  hath  been  from  the 
beginning  taught,  and  is,  and  shall  be,  then  you 
may  count  yourselves  Catholic :  otherwise  not.  And 
catholic  is  a  Greek  word,  compounded  of  Kara,  which 
signifieth  after,  or  according,  and  oAov,  a  sum,  or 
principal,  or  whole.  So  that  catholic  Church,  or  catho- 
lic Faith,  is  as  much  to  say,  as  the  first,  whole, 
sound,  or  chiefest  faith." 

Bonner, — "  Doth  St.  Augustine  say  so  as  he  allegeth 
it?  or  doth  he  mean  as  he  taketh  the  same?  How  say 
you,  master  Curtop  ?" 

Curtop, — "  Indeed,  my  lord,  St.  Augustine  hath  such 
a  saying,  speaking  against  the  Donatists,  that  the 
catholic  faith  ought  to  be  esteemed  of  things  in  time 
past,  and  as  they  are  practised  according  to  the  same, 
and  ought  to  be  through  all  ages  ;  and  not  after  a  new 
manner,  as  the  Donatists  began  to  profess." 
.  Philpot, — "  You  have  said  well,   master  Curtop,  and 


PHILPOT.  79 

after  the  meaning  of  St.  Augustine,  and  to  confirm  that 
which  I  had  said  for  the  signification  of  catholic." 

Coventry, — "  Let  the  book  be  seen,  my  lord." 

Bonner, — "  I  pray  you,  my  lord,  be  content,  or  in 
good  faith  I  will  break  even  off,  and  let  all  alone.  Do 
you  think  the  catholic  Church  (until  it  was  within  these 
few  years,  in  the  which  a  few  upon  singularity  have 
swerved  from  the  same)  have  erred  ?" 

Philpot, — "  I  do  not  think  that  the  catholic  Church 
can  err  in  doctrine  ;  but  I  require  you  to  prove  this 
Church  of  Rome  to  be  the  Catholic  Church." 

Curtop, — "  I  can  prove  that  Irenpeus  (which  was 
within  a  hundred  years  after  Christ)  came  to  Victor, 
when  Bishop  of  Rome,  to  ask  his  advice  about  the 
excommunication  of  certain  heretics ;  the  which  he 
would  not  have  done  (by  all  likelihood)  if  he  had  not 
taken  him   to  be   supreme  head." 

Coventry, — "  Mark  well  this  argument.  How  are  you 
able  to  answer  the  same?     Answer,  if  you  can." 

Philpot, — "  It  is  soon  answered,  my  lord,  for  that  it 
is  of  no  force ;  neither  this  fact  of  Irenseus  maketh  no 
more  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  than 
mine  hath  done,  which  have  been  at  Rome  as  well  as 
he,  and  might  have  spoken  with  the  pope,  if  I  had  list : 
and  yet  I  would  none  in  England  did  favour  his  supre- 
macy more  than  I." 

St.  Asaph, — "  You  are  the  more  to  blame,  by  the  faith 
of  my  body,  for  that  you  favour  the  same  no  better,  since 
all  the  catholic  Church  (until  these  few  years)  have  taken 
him  to  be  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church,  besides  this 
good  man  Irenaeus." 

Philpot, — "  That  is  not  likely,  that  Irenseus  so  took 
him,  or  the  priaiitive  Church  :  for  I  am  able  to  shew 
seven  general  councils  after  Irenaeus's  time,  wherein  he 
was  never  so  taken ;  which  may  be  a  sufi&cient  proof, 
that  the  catholic  primitive  Church  never  took  him  for 
supreme  head." 


80  PHILPOT. 

The  other  Bishop, — "  This  man  will  never  be  satisfied 
say  what  we  can.  It  is  but  folly  to  reason  any  more  with 
him." 

Philpot, — "  Oh,  my  lords,  would  you  have  me  satisfied 
with  nothing  ?  Judge,  I  pray  you,  who  of  us  hath  better 
authority,  he  which  bringeth  the  example  of  one  man 
going  to  Rome,  or  I  that  by  these  many  general  councils 
am  able  to  prove,  that  he  was  never  so  taken  in  many 
hundred  years  after  Christ,  as  by  the  Nicene,  the  first 
and  second  Ephesine,  the  Chalcedonian,  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan,  the  Carthaginian,  and  that  at  Aquileia." 

Coventry, — "  Why  will  you  not  admit  the  Church  of 
Rome  to  be  the  catholic  Church  ?" 

Philpot, — "  Because  it  followeth  not  the  primitive 
catholic  Church,  neither  agreeth  with  the  same,  no  more 
than  an  apple  is  like  a  nut." 

Coventry, — "  Wherein  doth  it  dissent  ?" 

Philpot, — "  It  were  too  long  to  recite  all  ;  but  two 
things  I  will  name,  the  supremacy  and  transubstantia- 
tion." 

Curtop, — "  As  for  transubstantiation,  albeit  it  was  set 
forth  and  decreed  for  an  article  of  faith  not  much  above 
three  hundred  years,  yet  it  was  always  believed  in  the 
Church." 

Bonner, — "  Yea,  that  was  very  well  said  of  you,  master 
Curtop." 

Philpot, — "  Ye  have  said  right,  that  transubstantia- 
tion is  but  a  late  plantation  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ; 
and  you  are  not  able  to  shew  any  ancient  writer,  that 
the  primitive  Church  did  believe  any  such  thing." 

And  with  this  Curtop  shrank  away.  And  immediately 
after  the  ambassador  of  Spain  came  in,  to  whom  my 
Lord  of  London  went,  leaving  the  other  with  me. 

On  the  Eucharist  we  may  quote  the  following  passage : 
Philpot, — "  My  Lord  of  London  may  be  soon  answered, 
that  the  saying  of  St.  John  is,  that  the  humanity  of 
Christ,  which  He  took  upon  Him  for  the  redemption  of 


PHILPOT.  81 

man,  is  the  bread  of  life,  whereby  our  bodies  and  souls 
be  sustained  to  eternal  life,  of  which  the  sacramental 
bread  is  a  lively  representation  and  an  effectual  coapta- 
tion to  all  such  as  believe  on  His  passion.  And  as 
Christ  saith  in  the  same  sixth  of  John,  '  I  am  the  bread 
that  came  down  from  heaven  ;'  but  He  is  not  material 
natural  bread  neither;  likewise  the  bread  is  His  flesh, 
not  natural  or  substantial,  but  by  signification,  and  by 
grace  in  the  Sacrament. 

'*  And  now  to  my  Lord  Riche's  argument.  I  do  not 
deny  the  express  words  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament. 
'This  is  My  body,'  but  I  deny  that  they  are  naturally 
and  corporally  to  be  taken  :  they  must  be  taken  sacra- 
mentally  and  spiritually,  according  to  the  express  decla- 
ration of  Christ,  saying  that  the  words  of  the  sacrament 
which  the  Capernaites  took  carnally,  as  the  Papists  now 
do,  ought  to  be  taken  spiritually  and  not  carnally,  as  they 
falsely  imagine,  not  weighing  what  interpretation  Christ 
hath  made  in  this  behalf,  neither  following  the  institution 
of  Christ,  neither  the  use  of  the  apostles  and  of  the 
primitive  Church,  who  never  taught  neither  declared  any 
such  carnal  manner  of  presence  as  is  now  exacted  of  us 
violently,  without  any  ground  of  Scripture  or  antiquity, 
who  used  to  put  out  of  the  Church  all  such  as  did  not 
receive  the  sacrament  with  the  rest,  and  also  to  burn 
that  which  was  left  after  the  receiving,  as  by  the  canon 
of  the  apostles,  and  by  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 
Antioch  may  appear." 

And,  again,  another  passage  may  be  quoted  to  the 
same  effect : — Chedsey, — "  Why,  then  you  would  not 
have  it  to  be  the  body  of  Christ,  unless  it  be  received  ?" 

Philpot, — "  No,  verily,  it  is  not  the  very  body  of  Christ 
to  any  other,  but  such  as  condignly  receive  the  same  after 
His  institution." 

London, — "  Is  not  a  loaf  a  loaf,  being  set  on  the 
table,  though  no  body  eat  thereof?" 

Philpot,—"  It  is  not  like,  my  lord  :  for  a  loaf  is  a  loaf 


82  PHILPOT. 

before  it  be  set  on  the  table  ;  but  so  is  not  the  sacrament 
a  perfect  sacrament,  before  it  be  duly  administered  at  the 
table  of  the  Lord." 

London, — "  I  pray  you,  what  is  it  in  the  mean  while, 
before  it  is  received?" 

Philpot, — "  It  is,  my  lord,  the  sign  begun  of  a  holy 
thing,  and  yet  no  perfect  sacrament  until  it  be  received. 
For  in  the  sacrament  there  be  two  things  to  be  considered, 
the  sign,  and  the  thing  itself,  which  is  Christ  and  His 
whole  passion  ;  and  it  is  that  to  none  but  to  such  as 
worthily  receive  the  holy  signs  of  bread  and  wine,  accord- 
ing to  Christ's  institution." 

Windsor, — "  There  were  never  any  that  denied  the 
words  of  Christ,  as  you  do.  Did  not  He  say,  '  This  is 
My  Body  ?' " 

Philpot, — "  My  lord,  I  pray  you,  be  not  deceived. 
We  do  not  deny  the  words  of  Christ :  but  we  say,  these 
words  be  of  none  effect,  being  spoken  otherwise  than 
Christ  did  institute  them  in  His  Last  Supper,  For  an 
example  :  Christ  biddeth  the  Church  '  to  baptize  in  the 
Name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost :'  if  a  priest  say  these  words  over  the  water,  and 
there  be  no  child  to  be  baptized,  these  words  only  pro- 
nounced do  not  make  baptism.  And  again,  baptism 
is  only  baptism  to  such  as  be  baptized,  and  to  none 
other  standing  by." 

Chamberlain, — "  I  pray  you,  my  lord,  let  me  ask  him 
one  question.  What  kind  of  presence  in  the  sacrament 
(duly  ministered  according  to  Christ's  ordinance)  do  you 
allow  r 

Philpot, — "  If  any  come  worthily  to  receive,  then  do 
I  confess  the  presence  of  Christ  wholly  to  be,  with  all 
the  fruits  of  His  passion,  unto  the  said  worthy  receiver, 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  Christ  is  thereby  joined 
to  him  and  he  to  Christ." 

Chamberlain, — "  I  am  answered," 

London, — "  My  lords,   take  no  heed  of  him,   for  he 


PHILPOT.  SS 

goeth  about  to  deceive  you.  His  similitude,  that  lie 
bringeth  in,  of  baptism  is  nothing  like  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar.  For  if  I  should  say  to  Sir  John  Bridges, 
being  with  me  at  supper,  and  having  a  fat  capon,  '  Take, 
eat,  this  is  a  fat  capon,'  although  he  eat  not  thereof,  is 
it  not  a  capon  still?  And  likewise  of  a  piece  of  beef, 
or  of  a  cup  of  wine  ;  if  I  say,  '  Drink,  this  is  a  cup  of 
wine,'  is  it  not  so,  because  he  drinketh  not  thereof?" 

Philpot, — "My  lord,  your  similitudes  be  too  gross  for 
so  high  mysteries  as  we  have  in  hand,  as,  if  I  were  your 
equal,  I  could  more  plainly  declare ;  and  there  is  much 
more  dissimilitude  between  common  meats  and  drinks, 
than  there  is  between  Baptism  and  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  Like  must  be  compared 
to  like,  and  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  and  not 
spiritual  things  with  corporal  things.  And  meats  and 
drinks  be  of  their  own  natures  good  or  evil ;  and  your 
words,  commenchng  or  discommending,  do  but  declare 
what  they  are.  But  the  sacraments  be  to  be  considered 
according  to  the  word  which  Christ  spake  of  them  ;  of 
the  which,  '  Take  ye,  and  eat  ye,'  be  some  of  the  chief, 
concurrent  to  the  making  of  the  same,  without  the 
which  there  can  be  no  sacraments.  And  therefore  in 
Greek  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  is 
called  KOLvcovia,  i.e.  communion;  and  likewise  in  the  Gos- 
pel Christ  commanded,  saying,  '  Divide  it  among  you,'" 

The  following  is  the  account  given  us  of  his  death  : 
"  Upon  Tuesday,  at  supper,  being  the  7th  of  December, 
there  came  a  messenger  from  the  sheriffs,  and  bade  mas- 
ter Philpot  make  him  ready,  for  the  next  day  he  should 
suffer,  and  be  burned  at  a  stake  vrith  fire.  Master 
Philpot  answered  and  said,  '  I  am  ready :  God  grant 
me  strength,  and  a  joyful  resurrection?'  And  so  he 
went  into  his  chamber,  and  poured  out  his  spirit  unto 
the  Lord  God,  giving  Him  most  hearty  thanks,  that 
He  of  His  mercy  had  made  him  worthy  to  suffer  for 
His  truth. 


84  PHILPOT. 

"  In  the  morning  the  sheriffs  came,  according  to  the 
order,  about  eight  of  the  clock,  and  called  for  him,  and 
he  most  joyfully  came  down  to  them.  And  there  his 
man  did  meet  him,  and  said,  'Ah!  dear  master,  farewell.' 
His  master  said  unto  him,  '  Serve  God,  and  He  will 
help  thee.'  And  so  he  went  with  the  sheriffs  to  the 
place  of  execution ;  and  when  he  was  entering  into 
Smith  field,  the  way  was  foul,  and  two  officers  took  him 
up  to  bear  him  to  the  stake.  Then  he  said  merrily, 
'What!  will  ye  make  me  a  pope?  I  am  content  to 
go  to  my  journey's  end  on  foot.'  But  first  coming  into 
Smithfield,  he  kneeled  down  there,  saying  these  words, 
'  I  will  pay  my  vows  in  thee,  0  Smithfield  ! ' 

"And  when  be  was  come  to  the  place  of  suffering, 
he  kissed  the  stake,  and  said,  '  Shall  I  disdain  to 
suffer  at  this  stake,  seeing  my  Redeemer  did  not  re- 
fuse to  suffer  a  most  vile  death  upon  the  cross  for  me  ?' 
And  then  with  an  obedient  heart  full  meekly  he  said 
the  106th,  the  107th,  and  the  108th  Psalms.  And 
when  he  had  made  an  end  of  all  his  prayers,  he  said 
to  the  officers,  'What  have  you  done  for  me?' — and 
every  one  of  them  declared  what  they  had  done ;  and 
he  gave  to  every  of  them  money, 

"  Then  they  bound  him  to  the  stake,  and  set  fire  unto 
that  constant  martyr,  who  on  the  18th  day  of  December, 
in  the  midst  of  the  fiery  flames,  yielded  his  soul  into 
the  hands  of  Almighty  God,  and  full  like  a  lamb  gave 
up  his  breath,  his  body  being  consumed  into  ashes. 

"  Thus  hast  thou,  gentle  reader,  the  life  and  doings 
of  this  learned  and  w^orthy  soldier  of  the  Lord,  John 
Philpot,  with  all  his  examinations  that  came  to  our 
hand,  first  penned  and  written  with  his  own  hand,  being 
marvellously  preserved  from  the  sight  and  hand  of  his 
enemies ;  who  by  all  manner  of  means  sought  not  only 
to  stop  him  from  all  writing,  but  also  to  spoil  and  deprive 
him  of  that  which  he  had  written  ;  for  the  which  cause 
he  was  many  times   stripped  and  searched  in  the  prison 


PHOTIUS.  85 

of  his  keeper:  but  yet  so  happily  these  his  writings 
were  conveyed  and  hid  in  places  about  him,  or  else  his 
keeper's  eyes  so  blinded,  that,  notwithstanding  all  this 
malicious  purpose  of  the  bishops,  they  are  yet  remaining 
and  come  to  light." 

He  wrote  : — Epistolae  Hebraicse  ;  De  Proprietate  Lin- 
guarum  ;  An  Apology  for  Spitting  upon  an  Arian,  with 
an  invective  against  the  Arians  ;  Supplication  to  King 
Philip  and  Queen  Mary;  Letters  to  Lady  Vane  ;  Letters 
to  the  Christian  Congregation,  that  they  abstain  from 
Mass  ;  Exhortation  to  his  Sister  ;  and.  Oration.  These 
are  all  printed  by  Fox,  except  the  last,  which  is  in  the 
Bodleian  Library.  He  also  wrote : — Translations  of 
Calvin's  Homilies ;  Chrysostom  against  Heresies  ;  and 
Coelius  Secundus  Curio's  Defence  of  the  old  and  ancient 
Authority  of  Christ's  Church ;  and,  Vera  Expositio  Dis- 
putationis  institutae  mandato  D.  Mariae  Reginae  Ang. 
&c.  in  Synodo  Ecclesiastico,  Londini,  in  comitiis  regni 
ad  18  Oct.,  anno  1553  ;  printed  in  Latin  at  Rome,  1554, 
and  in  English  at  Basle. — Examination  and  Writings  of 
Archdeacon  Philpot,  by  the  Parker  Society. 


PHOTIUS. 

Photius,  a  man  of  most  profound  and  universal  erudition, 
and  of  ambition  equally  great,  was  born  of  a  Patrician 
family  at  Constantinople,  where  he  received  his  educa- 
tion. He  flourished  in  the  ninth  century.  Devoting 
himself  in  early  life  to  the  service  of  the  state,  and 
supported  by  the  wealth  and  interest  of  his  family, 
after  passing  through  some  inferior  situations,  and  be- 
coming captain  of  the  guards,  he  was  appointed  secretary 
of  state,  under  the  Emperor  Michael  III.  He  now 
found  a  patron  in  the  Csesar  Bardas,  the  emperor's 
uncle.  Through  the  influence  of  Bardas,  Ignatius  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  having  been  degraded  from 

VOL.    VIII.  [ 


86  PHOTIUS. 

his  dignity  on  a  charge  of  treason  and  sent  into  exile, 
Photius,  though  a  layman,  was  appointed  his  successor. 
In  the  space  of  six  days,  Photius  was  ordained  deacon 
and  priest,  and  on  Christmas  day,  858,  he  was  conse- 
crated by  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Syracuse,  though  that 
prelate  had  been  deposed  by  the  Pope  of  Rome,  so  far 
as  the  Pope  of  Rome  had  power  to  depose  him. 

The  jealousy  between  the  Greek  Church  and  the 
Latin  Church  was  now  at  its  height,  and  the  imperti- 
nent claims  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  and  the  ambition 
of  the  Romish  court,  w^ould  have  rendered  a  good  under- 
standing between  the  two  Churches  impracticable  ;  but 
the  first  open  rupture  was  that  which  was  occasioned 
by  the  consecration  and  subsequent  transactions  of  Pho- 
tius. His  ordination  ^Yas  hasty,  his  rise  irregular,  and 
his  abdicated  predecessor  was  supported  by  public  com- 
passion and  the  obstinacy  of  his  adherents.  Although 
Ignatius  was  as  strongly  opposed  as  Photius  to  the  lofty 
pretensions  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  yet  the  adherents  of 
the  former,  in  the  madness  of  party  zeal,  appealed  to 
Nicholas  L,  one  of  the  proudest  and  most  aspiring  of 
the  Roman  Pontiffs.  He  at  once  availed  himself  of  the 
welcome  opportunity  of  judging  and  condemning  his 
rival  in  the  East.  Photius,  however,  knew  his  own 
position,  and  determined  to  maintain  it,  and  so  far  was 
he  from  caring  for  the  excommunication  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  that  he  returned  the  compliment,  and  in  a 
Council  assembled  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  866, 
he  declared  Nicholas  unworthy  both  of  the  place  he  held 
in  the  Church,  and  also  of  being  admitted  to  the  com- 
munion of  Christians. 

The  Roman  pontiff  alleged  a  specious  pretext  for  his 
appearing  in  this  matter  with  such  violence,  and  exciting 
such  unhappy  commotions  in  the  Church.  This  pretext 
was  the  innocence  of  Ignatius.  This,  however,  was  but 
a  mere  pretext ;  ambition  and  interest  were  the  true, 
though    secret   springs,    that  directed    the    motions   of 


PHOTIUS.  87 

Nicholas,  who  would  have  borne  with  patience,  nay, 
beheld  with  indifference  the  unjust  sufferings  of  Ignatius, 
could  he  but  have  recovered  from  the  Greeks  the  pro- 
vinces of  lUyricum,  Macedonia,  Epirus,  Achaia,  Thessalj, 
and  Sicily,  which  the  emperor  and  Photius  had  removed 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  Before  he 
engaged  in  the  cause  of  Ignatius,  he  sent  a  solemn 
embassy  to  Constantinople,  to  demand  the  restitution 
of  these  provinces;  but  his  demand  was  rejected  with 
contempt.  And  hence,  under  pretence  of  avenging  the 
injuries  committed  against  Ignatius,  he  indulged  without 
restraint  his  own  private  resentment,  and  thus  covered 
with  the  mask  of  justice  the  fury  of  disappointed  ambi- 
tion and  avarice. 

While  things  were  in  this  troubled  state,  and  the 
flame  of  controversy  was  growing  more  violent  from  day 
to  day,  Basil,  the  Macedonian,  who,  by  the  murder  of 
his  predecessor,  had  paved  his  way  to  the  imperial 
throne,  calmed  at  once  these  tumults,  and  restored  peace 
to  the  Church,  by  recalling  Ignatius  from  exile  to  the 
high  station  from  which  he  had  been  degraded,  and  by 
confining  Photius  in  a  monastery.  This  imperial  act 
of  authority  was  solemnly  approved  and  confirmed  by  a 
council  assembled  at  Constantinople,  in  the  year  869, 
in  which  the  legates  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  Adrian  II., 
had  great  influence,  and  were  treated  with  the  highest 
marks  of  distinction.  The  Latins  acknowledge  this 
assembly  as  the  eighth  mcumenical  council,  and  in  it  the 
religious  contests  between  them  and  the  Greeks  were 
concluded,  or  at  least  hushed  and  suspended.  But  the 
controversy  concerning  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiffs, the  Hmits  of  their  ghostly  empire,  and  particularly 
their  jurisdiction  in  Bulgaria,  still  subsisted;  nor  could 
all  the  efforts  of  Papal  ambition  engage  either  Ignatius 
or  the  emperor  to  give  up  Bulgaria,  or  any  other  pro- 
vince to  the  See  of  Rome. 

The  contest  that  had  arisen  between  the  Greeks  and 


88  PHOTIUS. 

Latins  concerning  the  elevation  of  Photius,  was  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  admit  of  an  eas_y  and  effectual  remedy. 
But  the  haughty  and  ambitious  spirit  of  this  learned 
and  ingenious  patriarch  fed  the  flame  of  discord  instead 
of  extinguishing  it,  and  unhappily  perpetuated  the 
troubles  and  divisions  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  the 
year  866,  he  added  to  the  See  of  Constantinople  the 
province  of  Bulgaria,  with  which  the  Pontiff  Nicholas 
had  formed  the  design  of  augmenting  his  own  spiritual 
dominions,  and  was  most  bitterly  provoked  at  missing 
his  aim.  Photius  went  yet  further,  and  entered  into 
measures  every  way  unworthy  of  his  character  and  sta- 
tion ;  for  he  not  only  sent  a  circular  letter  to  the  oriental 
patriarchs  to  engage  them  to  espouse  his  private  cause, 
as  the  public  and  momentous  cause  of  the  Church,  but 
drew  up  a  most  violent  charge  of  heresy  against  the 
Roman  Bishops,  who  had  been  sent  among  the  new 
converted  Bulgarians,  and  against  the  Church  of  Rome 
in  general.  The  articles  of  corrupt  doctrine,  or  heresy, 
which  this  imperious  and  exasperated  prelate  brought 
against  the  Romans,  were  as  follows  : — First,  That  they 
fasted  on  the  Sabbath,  or  seventh  day  of  the  week. 
Secondly,  That  in  the  first  week  of  Lent  they  permitted 
the  use  of  milk  and  cheese.  Thirdly,  That  they  pro- 
hibited their  clergy  to  marry,  and  separated  from  their 
wives  such  as  were  married,  when  they  went  into  orders. 
Fourthly,  That  they  maintained  that  the  bishops  alone 
were  authorized  to  anoint  with  the  holy  chrism  baptized 
persons,  and  that  they,  of  consequence,  who  had  been 
anointed  by  presbyters,  were  obliged  to  receive  that 
unction  a  second  time  from  the  hand  of  a  bishop. 
Lastly,  That  they  had  adulterated  the  symbol  or  creed 
of  Constantinople,  by  adding  to  it  the  words  Jilloque, 
i.  e.  and  from  the  Son,  and  were  therefore  of  opinion  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  proceed  from  the  Father  only, 
but  also  from  the  Son.  Nicholas  L,  finding  the  Romish 
Church  thus  attacked,  sent  the  articles  of  this  accusation 


PHOTIUS.  69 

to  Hincmar,  and  the  other  Galilean  Bishops  in  the  year 
867,  desiring  them  to  assemble  their  respective  suffra- 
gans in  order  to  examine  and  answer  the  reproach  of 
Photius.  Pursuant  to  this  exhortation  of  the  pontiff, 
Odo,  ^neas,  and  Ado,  Bishops  of  Beauvais,  Paris,  and 
Vienne,  as  also  the  celebrated  Ratramn,  stept  forth 
gallantly  into  the  field  of  controversy  against  the  Greeks, 
answered  one  by  one  the  accusations  of  Photius,  and 
employed  the  whole  force  of  their  erudition  and  zeal 
in  maintaining  the  cause  of  the  Latin  Churches. 

Upon  the  death  of  Ignatius,  which  happened  in  the 
year  878,  the  emperor  took  Photius  into  favour,  and 
placed  him  again  at  the  head  of  the  Greek  Church  in 
the  patriarchal  dignity  from  whence  he  had  fallen.  This 
restoration  of  the  degraded  patriarch  was  agreed  to  by 
the  Pioman  Pontiff  John  VIII.,  upon  condition,  however, 
that  Photius  would  permit  the  Bulgarians  to  come  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  See  of  Rome.  The  latter  pro- 
mised to  satisfy  in  this  the  demands  of  the  pontiff,  to 
which  the  emperor  also  seemed  to  consent;  and  hence 
it  was  that  John  VIII.  sent  legates  to  the  council  whicli 
was  held  at  Constantinople,  a.  d.  879,  by  whom  he 
declared  his  approbation  of  the  acts  of  that  assembly, 
and  acknowledged  Photius  as  his  brother  in  Christ. 
The  promises,  however,  of  the  emperor  and  the  patri- 
arch, were  far  from  being  accomplished ;  for  after  this 
council,  the  former,  most  probably  by  the  advice,  or  at 
least  with  the  consent  of  the  latter,  refused  to  transfer 
the  province  of  Bulgaria  to  the  Ptoman  Pontiff;  and 
it  must  be  confessed  that  this  refusal  was  founded  upon 
most  weighty  and  important  reasons.  The  Pontiff, 
notwithstanding,  was  highly  irritated  at  this  disappoint- 
ment, and  sent  Marinus  to  Constantinople  in  the  cliar- 
acter  of  legate,  to  declare  that  he  had  changed  his  mind 
concerning  Photius,  and  that  he  entirely  approved  of  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  that  had  been  formerly 
given  against  him.      The  legate,   upon  delivering  this 


90  PHOTIUS. 

disagreeable  message,  was  cast  into  prison  by  the  em- 
peror, but  was  afterwards  set  free;  and  being  raised 
to  the  pontificate  upon  the  death  of  John  VIII.,  recalled 
the  remembrance  of  this  injurious  treatment,  and  levelled 
a  new  sentence  of  condemnation  against  Photius. 

This  sentence  was  treated  with  contempt  by  the 
haughty  patriarch  :  but  about  six  years  after  this  period, 
he  experienced  anew  the  fragility  of  sublunary  grandeur 
and  elevation,  by  a  fall  which  concluded  his  prosperous 
days.  For  in  the  year  886,  Leo,  surnamed  the  Philoso- 
pher, the  son  and  successor  of  Basil,  deposed  him  from 
the  patriarchal  see,  and  confined  him  in  an  Armenian 
monastery,  where  he  died  in  the  year  891.  The  death 
of  Photius,  who  was  tVie  author  of  the  schisms  that 
divided  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  might  have  been  an 
occasion  of  removing  these  unhappy  contests,  and  of 
restoring  peace  and  concord  in  the  Church,  if  the  Roman 
Pontiffs  had  not  been  regardless  of  the  demands  of 
equity  as  well  as  of  the  duty  of  Christian  moderation. 
But  these  imperious  lords  of  the  Church  indulged  their 
vindictive  zeal  beyond  all  measure,  and  would  be  satis- 
fied with  nothing  less  than  the  degradation  of  all  the 
priests  and  bishops,  who  had  been  ordained  by  Photius. 
The  Greeks,  on  the  other  hand,  were  shocked  at  the 
arrogance  of  these  unjust  pretensions,  and  would  not 
submit  to  them  on  any  conditions.  Hence  a  spirit  of 
resentment  and  irritation  renewed  the  spirit  of  dispute, 
w^hich  had  been  happily  declining ;  religious  as  well 
as  civil  contests,  were  again  set  on  foot ;  new  contro- 
versies were  added  to  the  old,  until  the  fatal  schism 
-took  i^lace,  which  produced  a  lasting  and  total  separation 
between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Church. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  merits  or  the  demerits 
of  Photius  in  his  public  capacity,  learning  is  under  great 
obligations  to  him.  His  work,  entitled,  Myriobiblon, 
is  a  kind  of  abstract  and  critical  judgment  of  279 
different  writers  in  the  departments  of  history,  oratory, 


PHOTIUS.  91 

grammar,  philosophy,  theology,  &g.,  of  many  of  whom 
no  other  memorial  exists.  Fabricius  (Biblioth.  Grseca, 
V.  35)  gives  an  accurate  list  of  the  works  noticed  by 
Photius.  Another  of  his  works  is  entitled,  Nomocanon, 
being  a  collection  of  the  canons  of  the  councils,  and 
canonical  epistles,  and  the  imperial  laws  concerning 
ecclesiastical  matters.  His  Myriobiblon,  or  Bibliotheca, 
was  first  printed  by  Hoschelius  in  1601 ;  the  best  edition 
is  that  of  Piouen,  Gr.  et  Lat.  fol.  1653.  Imm.  Bekker 
published  the  Greek  text,  corrected  after  a  Venetian 
and  three  Paris  MSS.,  with  an  index,  Berlin,  1824, 
2  vols.  4 to.  His  Nomocanon  was  printed  with  the 
Commentaries  of  Balsamon  at  Paris,  Gr.  et  Lat.  4to, 
1615.  There  are  also  253  Letters  of  Photius,  which 
were  published  in  1651,  fob,  with  a  Latin  version  and 
notes,  by  Puchard  Mountagu,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  from 
a  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  There  are  other  small 
pieces  of  Photius  that  have  been  printed,  and  not  a 
few  still  extant  in  manuscript  only.  The  most  remark- 
able is  a  very  considerable  fragment  of  a  Greek  lexicon 
in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  alphabet  is  complete. 
The  various  MSS.  of  this  Lexicon,  in  different  libraries 
on  the  continent,  are  mere  transcripts  from  each  other, 
and  originally  from  one,  venerable  for  its  antiquity, 
which  was  formerly  in  the  possession  of  the  celebrated 
Thomas  Gale,  and  which  is  now  deposited  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  A  copy  of  this  Lexicon, 
at  Florence,  was  transcribed  about  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  by  Richard  Thompson,  of  Oxford.  Per- 
son had  transcribed  and  corrected  this  Lexicon  for  the 
press ;  and,  after  his  transcript  had  been  consumed 
by  fire,  he  began  the  task  afresh,  and  such  were  his 
incredible  industry  and  patience,  that  he  completed 
another  copy,  which  was  printed  in  1822,  2  vols.  8vo, 
London,  under  the  superintendence  of  Dobree.  An 
edition  of  this  Lexicon  was  also  published  at  Leipsic, 
in   1808,   by  Godfrey  Hermann,   from   two  MSS.,   both 


92  PILKINGTON. 

of  them  very  inaccurate.  Photius  also  wrote  a  Treatise, 
Adversus  Latinos  de  Processione  Spiritus  Sancti,  and 
other  theological  and  controversial  works,  several  of 
which  are  still  unpublished ;  among  others,  one  against 
the  Paulicians,  of  which  Montfaucon  gives  some  frag- 
ments in  his  Bibliotheca  Cosliniana;  and,  Amphilochia, 
being  Answers  to  Questions  relative  to  various  Passages 
in  the  Scriptures,  with  an  Exposition  of  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul. — Mosheim.    Dupin. 


PIOTET,    BENEDICT. 

Benedict  Pictet  was  born  at  Geneva,  in  1655.  In  his 
youth  he  travelled,  but  having  returned  to  his  native 
town,  he  became  in  1680,  minister  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Gervas,  and  in  1686,  professor  of  Divinity.  One 
of  the  most  extroardinary  events  connected  with  his 
history  is  that  in  1706,  the  Society  for  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  admitted  him  as  one  of  its 
members. 

He  died  in  17*24.  He  was  of  a  mild  and  tolerant 
disposition,  and  a  father  to  the  poor. 

His  principal  works  are : — Theologia  Christiana,  3 
vols,  4to;  the  best  edition  of  which  is  that  of  1721  ; 
Christian  Morality,  or  The  Art  of  Living  Well,  8  vols, 
12mo;  The  History  of  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth 
Centuries,  intended  as  a  continuation  of  that  of  Le 
Sueur ;  but  the  supplementary  work  is  more  esteemed 
than  the  original ;  and,  A  Treatise  against  Indifference 
in  Religion. — Moreri. 


PILKINGTON,    JAMES. 

James  Pilkington  was  born  in   1520,  at  Rivington,  in 
Lancashire.     At  an  early  period  he  was  sent  to  Cam- 


PILKINGTON.  93 

bridge,  and  became  a  member  of  St.  John's  College,  of 
which  college  he  became  master  in  1558.  He  was  very 
active  in  encouraging  the  Study  of  Greek  in  the  university. 
By  King  Edward  VI.  he  was  presented  to  the  Vicarage 
of  Kendal  in  Westmoreland.  At  the  Visitation  of  Cam- 
bridge held  by  the  royal  commissioners  in  1549,  the 
subject  of  Transubstantiation  was  discussed,  and  it  was 
"learnedly  determined"  by  Ridley,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  one  of  the  visitors.  Alban  Langdale,  a  papist, 
attacked  this  determination,  and  Pilkington  published 
a  book  in  which  he  shewed  how  Ridley's  determination 
at  that  time  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  students. 
Where,  giving  account  of  this  matter,  he  writes,  that 
Dr.  Ridley,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  came  in  visitation  to 
Cambridge,  and  because  the  doctrine  of  the  sacrament 
seemed  then  strange  to  many,  he  propounded  this 
proposition  at  that  time  to  the  whole  university  to  dis- 
pute upon,  That  it  could  not  be  proved  by  any  ancient 
writer,  Greek  or  Latin,  which  lived  a  thousand  years 
since,  or  within  five  hundred  years  after  Christ,  that 
the  substance  of  the  bread  was  changed  in  the  sacra- 
ment to  the  substance  of  Christ's  Body.  Disputation 
being  ended,  the  bishop  made  all  things  so  clear  in  his 
determination,  that  they  were  so  convinced,  that  some 
of  them  would  have  turned  Archbishop  Cranmer's  book 
of  that  subject  into  Latin,  &c. 

During  the  Marian  persecution  he  left  the  country, 
and  went  first  to  Zurich,  and  afterwards  to  Basle.  On 
the  death  of  Mary,  we  find  his  name  the  first  attached 
to  a  document  of  great  moderation,  written  by  the 
English  divines  at  Frankfort,  in  answer  to  a  violent 
letter  from  the  exiles  who  were  at  Geneva.  This  docu- 
ment was  dated  on  the  3rd  of  Januay,  1559,  and  imputed 
"  That  it  would  not  be  in  either  of  their  hands  to 
appoint  what  ceremonies  should  be,  but  in  such  men's 
wisdoms  as  should  be  appointed  to  the  devising  of  the 
same;  and  which  should  be  received  by  common  consent 


94  PILKINGTON. 

of  parliament :  and  therefore  it  would  be  to  small  pur- 
pose to  contend  about  them.  Wherefore  as  they,  [viz. 
of  the  Church  at  Frankfort,]  trusting  they  should  not 
be  burdened  with  unprofitable  ceremonies,  purposed  to 
submit  themselves  to  such  orders  as  should  be  estab- 
lished by  authority,  (not  being  of  themselves  wicked,) 
so  they  would  wish  them  [of  Geneva]  to  do  the  same. 
And  that  whereas  all  reformed  Churches  differed  among 
themselves  in  divers  ceremonies,  and  yet  agreed  in  the 
unity  of  doctrine  they  saw  no  inconvenience,  if  they 
used  some  ceremonies  diverse  from  them ;  so  that  they 
agreed  in  the  chief  points  of  their  religion.  Notwith- 
standing, thai^  if  any  should  be  intruded  that  should 
be  offensive,  they,  [of  Frankfort,]  upon  just  conference 
and  deliberation  upon  the  same  at  their  meeting  with 
them  in  England,  (which  they  trusted  by  God  s  grace 
would  be  shortly,)  would  brotherly  join  with  them,  to  be 
suitors  for  the  reforming  and  abolishing  of  the  same." 

We  find  Pilkington  many  years  after  when  Bishop  of 
Durham,  writing  in  the  same  tone  of  moderation  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  Eodolph  Gualter.  He  laments  the 
state  of  the  times,  saying : — "  But  here,  I  pray  you, 
pause  awhile  with  me,  and  mourn  over  this  our  Church 
at  this  time  so  miserably  divided,  not  to  saj,  wholly  rent 
in  pieces.  Commend  her  to  the  Lord  your  God,  and 
entreat  Him  that,  having  compassion  upon  us.  He  may 
T61*y  soon  provide  some  godly  remedy  for  the  healing  of 
her  wounds,  that  she  may  not  be  utterly  destroyed.  Your 
prudence  has  heard,  I  well  know,  and  that  often  enough 
to  weary  you,  of  that  unhappy  dispute  among  some  of 
our  friends  respecting  the  affair  of  the  habits  and  the 
dress  of  the  clergy,  and  how  great  a  disturbance  it  has 
excited  ;  but  it  has  now  so  broken  out  afresh,  nay  more, 
that  which  heretofore  lurked  in  dissimulation  has  now 
so  openly  discovered  itself,  that  not  only  the  habits,  but 
our  whole  ecclesiastical  polity,  discipline,  the  revenues  of 
the  bishops,    ceremonies   or   public   forms  of  worship. 


PILKINGTON.  05 

liturgies,  vocation  of  ministers,  or  the  ministration  of 
the  Sacraments, — all  these  things  are  now  openly  attacked 
from  the  press,  and  it  is  contended  with  the  greatest 
bitterness,  that  they  are  not  to  be  endured  in  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  doctrine  alone  they  leave  untouched  ; 
as  to  everything  else,  by  whatever  name  you  call  it,  they 
are  clamourous  for  its  removal.  The  godly  mourn,  the 
Papists  exult,  that  we  are  now  fighting  against  each  other 
who  were  heretofore  wont  to  attack  them  with  our  united 
forces  ;  the  weak  know  not  what  or  W'hom  to  believe  ;  the 
godless  are  altogether  insensible  to  any  danger;  the 
Piomish  priesthood  are  gaping  for  the  prey,  and  are  like 
bellow^s  carefully  blowing  up  the  flame,  that  the  mischief 
may  increase.  It  is  lamentable  to  behold,  and  dreadful 
to  hear  of  such  things  taking  place  among  those  who 
profess  the  same  religion  ;  and  yet  the  entire  blame  is 
laid  upon  the  Bishops,  as  if  they  alone,  if  they  chose, 
v/ere  able  to  eradicate  all  these  evils.  We  endure,  I 
must  confess,  many  things  against  our  inclinations,  and 
groan  under  them,  which  if  we  wished  ever  so  much,  no 
entreaty  can  remove.  We  are  under  authority,  and 
cannot  make  any  innovation  without  the  sanction  of  the 
queen,  or  abrogate  anything  without  the  authority  of  the 
laws ;  and  the  only  alternative  allowed  us  is,  whether  we 
will  bear  with  these  things  or  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Church.  I  wish  all  parties  would  understand  and  follow 
your  wholesome  advice  in  your  preface  to  the  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians,  respecting  the  variety  of  rites  and  dis- 
cipline in  individual  Churches.  But  these  men  are 
crying  out  that  nothing  is  to  be  endured  in  the  rites  of 
the  Church,  which  is  later  than  the  times  of  the  apostles, 
and  that  all  our  discipline  must  be  derived  from  thence, 
and  this  at  the  peril  of  the  soul  and  our  salvation." 

On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  Pilkington  returned 
to  England,  and  in  February  1561,  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Durham.  In  1562,  he  is  said  to  have  been 
queen's  reader  of  divinity  lectures.     During  this  prelates 


96  PISCATOR. 

time,  not  only  the  cause  of  religion,  but  also  political 
matters,  called  the  queen's  attention  towards  Scotland, 
and  the  borders  were  frequently  the  scene  of  military 
operations.  During  these  commotions,  the  queen  having 
seized  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland's  estates  within  the 
Bishopric  of  Durham,  Pilkington  instituted  his  suit,  in 
which  it  was  determined,  that  "  where  he  hath  jura 
regalia,  he  shall  have  forfeiture  of  high  treason."  By 
an  act  of  parliament,  made  in  the  13th  year  of  Elizabeth, 
1570.  c.  16,  "The  convictions,  outlawries,  and  attain- 
ders of  Charles,  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  and  fifty-seven 
others,  attainted  of  treason,  for  open  rebellion  in  the 
north  parts,  were  confirmed  ;"  and  it  was  enacted,  '-That 
the  queen,  her  heirs,  and  successors,  should  have,  for 
that  time,  all  the  lands  and  goods  which  any  of  the 
said  persons  attainted  within  the  Bishopric  of  Durham 
had,  against  the  bishop  and  his  successors,  though  he 
claimeth  jura  regalia,  and  challengeth  all  the  said  for- 
feitures in  right  of  his  church."  So  that  the  see  was 
deprived  of  the  greatest  acquisition  it  had  been  entitled 
to  for  many  centuries. 

He  wrote : — A  Commentary  of  Aggeus  (Haggai)  the 
Prophet,  1560,  8vo ;  A  Sermon  on  the  Burning  of  St. 
Paul's  Church,  in  London,  in  1561,  1563,  12mo;  Com- 
mentaries on  Ecclesiastes,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Peter, 
and  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Galatians  ;  and,  A  Defence  of  the 
English  Service.  After  his  death,  his  Exposition  on 
Nehemiah  was  published,  1585,  4to.  He  left  in  manu- 
script Statutes  for  the  Consistory.  He  died  Jan.  23rd, 
1575,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  at 
Auckland;  but  his  remains  were  afterwards  removed, 
and  interred  in  the  choir  of  Durham  Cathedral. — Strype. 
Zurich  Letters. 

PISCATOR,    OR    FISCHER,  JOHN. 

John  Piscator,  or  Fischer,  was  born  at  Strasburg,  in 


PLACETTE.  97 

1546,  and  received  his  education  in  his  native  place,  from 
which  he  withdrew  on  his  becoming  a  Calvinist,  and,  in 
1584,  he  became  theological  Professor  at  Herborn,  in 
Welterau.  He  died  in  1626.  In  his  late  years  he 
inclined  to  Arminianism. 

Piscator  made  an  almost  entirely  new  translation  of 
the  Bible,  from  the  original  languages  into  German, 
which  was  published  at  Herborn  ;  and  was  followed,  in 
1608,  by  An  Apology  for  that  version,  in  4to. 

He  was  the  author  of  Commentaries,  in  Latin,  upon 
all  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  1601 — 
1616,  in  24  vols.  Svo,  which  were  collected  together, 
and  published  in  1643 — 1645,  in  4  vols.  fol.  He  was 
also  the  author  of  Analysis  Logica  Epistolarum  Pauli 
ad  Roman.  Corinth.  Galat.  Ephes.  &c.  1590,  Svo;  Index 
in  Libros  Biblicos  Veteris  Testamenti,  1622,  in  6  vols. 
Svo  ;  Scripta  adversaria  de  Causa  Meritoria  Justifica- 
tionis,  1590,  Svo;  together  with  practical  and  contro- 
versial treatises,  &c. — Biog.   Univemelle. 

PLACE,    JOSHUA    DE    LA. 

Joshua  de  la  Place  was  born  in  1596,  and  educated  at 
Saumur,  of  which  university  he  became,  in  1633,  theo- 
logical Professor.     He  died  in  1665. 

He  wrote  : — An  exposition  of  the  Song  of  Songs  ;  A 
Treatise  on  Types ;  A  Treatise  concerning  the  Imputa- 
tion of  Adam's  first  Sin ;  On  the  Order  of  the  Divine 
Decrees ;  On  Free-will ;  A  Compendium  of  Divinity ; 
Dialogues  between  a  Father  and  his  Son,  relative  to  a 
Change  of  Religion;  A  Treatise  concerning  the  Invo- 
cation of  Saints  ;  and  An  Examination  of  the  Reasons 
for  and  against  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  &c.  A  collec- 
tion of  all  his  works  was  published  at  Franeker  in  1699 
and  1703,  in  2  vols.  4to. — Moreri. 

PLACETTE,  JOHN   DE    LA. 

John  de  la  Placette  was  born  in  1639,  at  Pontac,  in 

VOL.  VIII.  K 


9S  POCOCK. 

Beam,  and  was  for  some  time  a  Protestant  minister 
in  the  Church  of  Orthes,  in  Beam ;  he  removed  to  Naye, 
and  at  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  he  became 
minister  of  the  parish  Church  at  Copenhagen.  In  1711, 
he  removed  to  the  Hague,  and  afterwards  to  Utrecht, 
where  he  died  in  1718. 

He  wrote  : — New  Moral  Essays  ;  A  Treatise  on  Pride  ; 
A  Treatise  on  Conscience, — this  was  translated  into 
English  bv  Basil  Kennett,  under  the  title  of  The 
Christian  Casuist ;  A  Treatise  on  Good  Works  in 
general ;  A  Treatise  on  Oaths ;  Various  Treatises 
on  Matters  of  Conscience ;  The  Death  of  the  Just,  or, 
the  Manner  of  dying  well  ;  A  Treatise  on  Alms ;  A 
Treatise  on  Games  of  Chance;  A  Compendium  of 
Christian  Morality ;  Christian  Pieflections  on  several 
moral  Subjects ;  and,  A  Treatise  on  Divine  Faith. — 
Moreri. 

POCOCK,    EDWARD. 

Edwaed  Pocook  was  bom  at  Oxford,  in  1604.  He  was 
educated  at  the  Free-school  of  Thame, ^and  at  Magdalen 
Hall,  and  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  of  which  latter 
he  afterwards  became  fellow.  At  the  university  he  ap- 
plied himself  to  the  study  of  the  Eastern  languages, 
which  at  that  time  were  taught  privately  at  Oxford  by 
Matthew  Pasor.  He  found  also  another  able  tutor  for 
Eastern  literature  in  the  Rev.  William  Bedwell,  vicar  of 
Tottenham,  near  London,  whom  his  biographer  praises 
as  one  of  the  first  who  promoted  the  study  of  the  Arabic 
language  in  Europe.  And  now  the  statutes  of  the 
college  providing  that  he  should  speedily  take  orders, 
he  commenced  the  study  of  theology.  He  followed 
the  plan  suggested  by  James  I.,  who  directed  this  study 
to  be  pursued,  not  by  insisting  on  modern  compendiums 
and  tracts  of  divinity,  but  by  applying  himself  chiefly 
to  fathers    and   councils,    ecclesiastical   historians   and 


POCOCK.  99 

other  ancient  writers,  together  with  the  sacred  text, 
the  word  of  God.  For  though  he  perused  the  books 
of  some  late  writers  in  divinity,  it  was  not,  we  find, 
to  form  his  notions  on  matters  of  reUgion,  according  to 
their  conceptions  and  opinions,  but  to  take  their  direc- 
tion about  several  pieces  of  antiquity,  in  order  to  a 
general  knowledge  of  their  nature  and  excellency,  and 
to  distinguish  the  genuine  from  such  as  are  of  doubtful 
original,  or  manifestly  spurious.  This,  in  particular,  we 
learn  from  some  papers  begun  to  be  written  by  him, 
September  7,  1629,  was  the  use  he  made  of  a  treatise 
of  some  account,  then  reprinted  at  Oxford,  namely, 
Ger.  Vossius's  Theses  Theologicse,  out  of  which  he 
collected  several  things  of  this  nature  and  of  no  other. 
But  amidst  his  theological  studies  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  lay  aside  all  regard  for  those  Eastern  lan- 
guages to  which  his  mind  was  so  addicted,  and  on 
which  he  had  bestowed  so  much  time  and  pains.  He 
therefore,  about  this  time,  pursued  a  design  wherein 
both  were  joined  together,  and  that  was,  the  fitting  for 
the  press  those  parts  of  the  Syriac  version  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  had  never  yet  been  published.  Igna- 
tius, the  Jacobite  patriarch  of  Antioch,  had,  in  the  last 
age,  sent  Moses  Meridin^us,  a  priest  of  Mesopotamia, 
into  the  west,  to  get  that  version  printed,  in  order  to  the 
carrying  back  a  sufficient  number  of  copies  for  the  use 
of  his  Churches.  And  this  work,  by  the  care  and  dili- 
gence of  Albertus  Widmanstadius,  was  very  well  per- 
formed at  Vienna,  a.  d.  1555.  But  the  Syriac  New 
Testament  thus  brought  out  of  the  East,  and  followed 
in  that  impression,  wanted  the  second  epistle  of  St. 
Peter,  the  second  and  third  epistles  of  St.  John,  the 
epistle  of  St.  Jude,  and  the  whole  book  of  the  Revela- 
tion: because,  as  a  learned  man  conjectures,  those  parts 
of  Holy  Scripture,  though  extant  amongst  them,  were 
not  yet  received  into  the  canon,  by  those  Oriental 
Churches.      This  defect  no  body  took  care  to  supply, 


100  POCOCK. 

till  that  very  learned  person  Ludovicus  de  Bieu,  on 
the  encouragement  and  with  the  assistance  of  Daniel 
Heinsius,  set  about  the  Revelation ;  being  furnished 
with  a  copy  of  it,  which  had  been  given  with  many 
other  manuscripts,  to  the  university  of  Leyden  by  the 
famous  Joseph  Scaliger.  That  Version  of  the  Apo- 
calypse was  printed  at  Leyden  in  the  year  1627,  but 
still  the  four  Epistles  were  wanting,  and  those  Pocock 
undertook,  being  desirous  that  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment might  at  length  be  published  in  that  language, 
which  was  the  vulgar  tongue  of  our  Blessed  Saviour 
Himself,  and  His  holy  Apostles.  A  very  fair  manuscrij)t 
for  this  purpose  he  had  met  with  in  that  vast  treasure  of 
learning  the  Bodleian  library  ;  containing  those  epistles, 
together  with  some  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament. 
Out  of  this  manuscript,  following  the  example  of  de 
Dieu,  he  transcribed  those  epistles  in  the  Syriac  cha- 
racter ;  the  same  he  likewise  set  down  in  Hebrew  letters, 
adding  the  points,  not  according  to  the  ordinary,  but  the 
Syriac  rules,  as  they  had  been  delivered  by  those  learned 
Maronites,  Amira  and  Sionita.  He  also  made  a  new 
translation  of  these  epistles  out  of  Syriac  into  Latin, 
comparing  it  with  that  of  Etzelius,  and  shewing  upon 
all  considerable  occasions,  the  reason  of  his  dissent  from 
him.  Moreover,  he  added  the  original  Greek,  concluding 
the  whole  with  a  good  number  of  learned  and  useful 
notes. 

This  was  published  at  Leyden  in  1630.  Meanwhile, 
in  December,  1629,  Pocock  had  been  ordained  by  Corbett, 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the 
English  merchants  at  Aleppo,  where  he  arrived  in  Oct. 
1630,  and  remained  for  nearly  six  years.  Being  a  man 
of  meek  and  humble  temper,  and  naturally  in  love  with 
retirement  and  peace,  he  did  not  (as  many  travellers 
do)  carry  with  him  a  violent  desire  of  viewing  strange 
countries.  Nay,  he  was  so  far  from  being  delighted  either 
with  what  he  had  already  seen,  or  the  place  where  he  was 


pococK.  lor 

now  settled  ;  that,  in  a  letter,  written  about  two  months 
after  his  arrival  to  Mr.  Thomas  Greaves,  a  very  studious 
young  man,  then  scholar  of  Corpus  Christi,  he  gave  but 
a  very  melancholy  account  of  himself.  "My  chief 
solace,"  said  he,  "  is  the  remembrance  of  my  friends, 
and  my  former  happiness,  when  I  was  among  them. 
Happy  you  that  enjoy  those  places  where  I  so  often 
wish  myself  as  I  see  the  barbarous  people  of  this 
country.  I  think  that  he  that  hath  once  been  out  of 
England,  if  he  get  home,  will  not  easily  be  persuaded 
to  leave  it  again.  There  is  nothing  that  may  make  a 
man  envy  a  traveller."  However,  being  abroad,  he 
resolved  that  his  natural  aversion  for  such  a  kind  of 
life  should  not  make  him  neglect  the  doing  anything 
in  the  post  he  was  in,  which  was  either  his  duty  to 
God,  or  might  answer  the  expectation  of  good  and 
learned  men. 

Above  all  other  things  he  carefully  applied  himself  to 
the  business  of  his  place  as  chaplain  to  the  factory; 
performing  the  solemn  duties  of  religion  in  that  decent 
and  orderly  manner  which  our  Church  requires.  He 
was  diligent  in  preaching,  exhorting  his  countrymen 
in  a  plain,  but  very  convincing  way,  to  piety,  temper- 
ance, justice,  and  love,  which  would  both  secure  to  them 
the  favour  and  protection  of  the  Almighty,  and  also 
adorn  their  conversation,  rendering  it  comely  in  the 
sight  of  an  unbelieving  nation.  And  what  he  laboured 
to  persuade  others  to  he  duly  practised  himself,  pro- 
posing to  his  hearers,  in  his  own  regular  and  unspotted 
life,  a  bright  example  of  the  holiness  he  recommended. 

As  he  was  seldom  or  never  drawn  from  the  constant 
performance  of  these  duties  of  his  charge  by  a  curiosity 
tempting  him  to  the  view  of  other  places  of  that  country, 
so  he  would  not  omit  what  belonged  to  his  office,  even 
when  attended  with  a  very  affrightening  danger.  For 
in  the  year  1034,  as  the  plague  raged  furiouslj^  in 
Aleppo,    and   many   of    the   merchants   fled  two    days 


103  POCOCK. 

journey  from  it,  and  dwelt  in  tents  on  the  mountains  ; 
he  had  that  holy  confidence  in  the  Providence  of  God, 
and  that  readiness  to  meet  His  good  pleasure,  whatever  it 
should  be,  that  though  he  visited  them  that  were  in  the 
country,  he,  for  the  most  part,  continued  to  assist  and 
comfort  those  who  had  shut  up  themselves  in  the  city. 
And  indeed,  the  mercy  of  God  (as  he  most  thankfully 
acknowledged  in  a  letter  sent  a  little  after  to  a  friend 
in  Oxford)  was  signally  manifested,  at  the  time,  towards 
him,  and  all  our  nation  belonging  to  that  factory. 
For  though  the  pestilence  wasted  beyond  the  example 
of  former  times,  not  ceasing,  as  usually,  at  the  entrance 
of  the  dog-days,  all  the  English  were  preserved,  as  well 
they  that  continued  in  the  town  as  they  that  fled  from 
it.  God  covered  them  with  His  protection,  and  was 
their  shield  and  buckler  against  that  terrible  destruc- 
tion :  *'  A  thousand  fell  at  their  side,  and  thousands  at 
their  right  hand,  and  yet  it  did  not  come  nigh  them." 
But  he  knew  the  advantages  as  well  as  the  disadvan- 
tages of  his  position,  especially  as  they  related  to  bis 
favourite  studies.  He  immediately  engaged  a  master 
in  the  Arabic  tongue,  and  a  servant  of  the  nation  for 
the  purpose  of  familiar  converse  in  it ;  and  he  under- 
took the  translation  of  several  Arabic  books,  among 
which  was  a  collection  of  6000  proverbs.  Having  re- 
ceived a  commission  from  Dr.  Laud,  then  Bishop  of 
London,  for  the  purchase  of  Greek  coins,  and  Greek 
and  oriental  manuscripts,  he  employed  himself  in  its 
execution;  nor  amidst  these  literary  labours  did  he 
neglect  the  proper  duties  of  his  office,  but  discharged 
them  with  great  fidelity,  even  when  they  exposed  him 
to  imminent  danger  from  the  plague.  In  1636,  being 
informed  by  Laud  of  his  intention  of  nominating  him 
the  first  professor  of  the  Arabic  lecture  founded  by  that 
munificent  prelate  at  Oxford,  he  returned  to  occupy  a 
place  so  conformable  to  his  wishes.  To  this,  after  taking 
the  degree  of  B.D.,  he  was  formally  appointed  in  August, 


POCOCK.  103 

and  he  opened  his  lectures  with  an  eloquent  Latin 
oration  on  the  nature  and  use  of  the  Arabic  tongue. 
The  solicitations  and  generous  offers  of  his  friend  Mr. 
John  Greaves  to  procure  him  as  a  companion  -in  a 
journey  into  the  east,  induced  him,  however,  after  obtain- 
ing leave  of  absence,  to  embark  with  that  learned  mathe- 
matician, in  1637,  for  Constantinople.  During  his  stay 
in  that  city  he  employed  himself  in  perfecting  his  know- 
ledge of  the  oriental  tongues,  and  in  purchasing  manu- 
scripts for  Archbishop  Laud,  and  he  also  ojB&ciated  as  chap- 
lain to  the  English  ambassador.  In  1640,  he  set  out  on 
his  return,  and  passing  through  Paris,  had  an  interview 
with  the  illustrious  Grotius,  who  was  much  gratified  on 
being  consulted  by  him  on  an  Arabic  translation  of  his 
noted  book  De  Veritate  Christiange  Religionis.  While 
at  Paris,  and  on  the  road,  he  heard  of  the  commotions 
in  England,  and  on  his  arrival  he  found  his  liberal 
patron,  Laud,  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower.  Here  he  imme- 
diately visited  the  archbishop,  and  their  interview  was 
affecting  on  both  sides.  Pocock  then  went  to  Oxford, 
where  he  found  that  the  archbishop  had  settled  the 
Arabic  professorship  in  perpetuity  by  a  grant  of  lands. 
He  now  resumed  his  lecture  and  his  private  studies. 
In  1641  he  became  acquainted  with  Selden,  who  was  at 
this  time  preparing  for  the  press  some  part  of  Euty- 
chius's  Annals,  in  Latin  and  Arabic,  which  he  published 
the  year  following,  under  the  title  of  Origines  Alexan- 
drinae ;  and  Pocock  assisted  him  in  collating  and  extract- 
ing from  the  Arabic  MSS.  at  Oxford. 

In  1643,  he  was  presented  by  his  college  to  the  living 
of  Childry,  in  Berkshire  ;  and  he  set  himself  with  his 
utmost  diligence,  to  a  conscentious  performance  of  all  the 
duties  of  his  cure ;  labouring  for  the  edification  of  those 
committed  to  his  charge,  with  the  zeal  and  application  of  a 
man,  who  thoroughly  considered  the  value  of  immortal 
souls,  and  the  account  he  was  to  give.  He  was  constant 
in  preaching,   performing  that  work  twice  every  Lord's 


104  POCOCK. 

Day.  And  because  the  addition  of  catechizing,  which 
he  would  not  neglect,  made  this  a  burthen  too  heavy 
to  be  always  borne  by  himself,  he  sometimes  procured 
an  assistant  from  Oxford,  to  preach  in  the  afternoon. 
His  sermons  were  so  contrived  by  him,  as  to  be  most 
useful  to  the  persons  that  were  to  hear  them.  For 
though  such  as  he  preached  in  the  University  were  very 
elaborate,  and  full  of  critical  and  other  learning ;  the 
discourses  he  delivered  in  his  parish,  were  plain  and 
easy,  having  nothing  in  them,  which  he  perceived  to 
be  above  the  capacities,  even  of  the  meanest  of  his 
auditors.  He  commonly  began  with  an  explanation  of 
the  text  he  made  choice  of,  rendering  the  sense  of  it  as 
obvious  and  intelligible,  as  might  be  :  then  he  noted 
whatever  was  contained  in  it  relating  to  a  good  life ; 
and  recommended  it  to  his  hearers,  with  a  great  force 
of  spiritual  arguments,  and  all  the  motives,  which  ap- 
peared most  likely  to  prevail  with  them.  And  as  he 
carefully  avoided  the  shew  and  ostentation  of  learning ; 
so  he  would  not,  by  any  means,  indulge  himself  in  the 
practice  of  those  arts,  which  at  that  time  were  very 
common,  and  much  admired  by  ordinary  people.  Such 
were  distortions  of  the  countenance  and  strange  gestures, 
a  violent  and  unnatural  way  of  speaking,  and  affected 
words  and  phrases,  which  being  out  of  the  ordinary  way, 
were  therefore  supposed  to  express  somewhat  very 
mysterious,  and,  in  a  high  degree,  spiritual.  Though  no 
body  could  be  more  unwilling  than  he  was  to  make 
people  uneasy,  if  it  was  possible  for  him  to  avoid  it ; 
yet  neither  did  his  natural  temper  prevail  with  him, 
nor  any  other  consideration  tempt  him,  to  be  silent, 
where  reproof  was  necessary.  With  a  courage,  there- 
fore, becoming  an  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ,  he 
boldly  declared  against  the  sins  of  the  times  ;  warning 
those  w^ho  were  under  his  care,  as  against  all  profane 
and  immoral  practices,  so  against  those  schisms  and 
divisions,  which  were  now  breaking  in  upon  the  Church, 


POCOCK.  105 

and  those  seditions  which  aimed  at  the  subversion  of 
the  state.  His  whole  conversation  too  was  one  con- 
tinued sermon,  powerfully  recommending,  to  all  that 
were  acquainted  with  him,  the  several  duties  of  Chris- 
tianity. For  as  he  was  "  blameless  and  harmless,  and 
without  rebuke  ;  "  so  his  unaffected  piety,  his  meekness 
and  humility,  his  kind  and  obliging  behaviour,  and  great 
readiness,  upon  every  occasion,  to  do  all  the  good  he  was 
capable  of,  made  him  shine  as  "  a  light  in  the  world." 

A  minister  that  thus  acquitted  himself,  one  would 
think,  should  have  met  with  much  esteem,  and  all 
imaginable  good  usage  from  his  whole  parish  ;  but  the 
matter  was  otherwise ;  he  was  one  of  those  excellent 
persons,  whom  the  brightest  virtue  has  not  been  able 
to  secure  from  an  evil  treatment ;  yea,  that  upon  ac- 
count, even  of  what  was  highly  valuable  in  them,  have 
been  contemned,  reproached,  and  injuriously  handled. 
Some  few,  indeed,  of  those  under  his  care,  had  a  just 
sense  of  his  worth,  and  paid  him  all  the  respect  that 
was  due  to  it ;  but  the  behaviour  of  the  greater  number 
was  such,  as  could  not  but  often  much  discompose  and 
afflict  him.  His  care  not  to  amuse  his  hearers,  with 
things  which  they  could  not  understand,  gave  some  of 
them  occasion  to  entertain  very  contemptible  thoughts 
of  his  learning,  and  to  speak  of  him  accordingly.  So 
that  one  of  his  Oxford  friends,  as  he  travelled  through 
Childry,  inquiring,  for  his  diversion,  of  some  people, 
who  was  their  minister,  and  how  they  liked  him, 
received  from  them  this  answer  :  "  Our  parson  is  one 
Mr.  Pocock,  a  plain,  honest  man ;  but  master,"  said 
they,  "he  is  no  Latiner."  His  avoiding,  as  he  preached, 
that  boisterous  action,  and  those  canting  expressions, 
which  were  then  so  very  taking  with  many  lovers  of 
novelty,  was  the  reason  that  not  a  few  considered  him 
as  a  weak  man,  whose  discourses  could  not  edify,  being 
dead  morality,  having  nothing  of  power  and  the  spirit : 
but  his  declaring  against  divisions,  sedition,  and  rebel- 


106  POCOCK. 

lion,  was  most  offensive,  and  raised  the  greatest  clamour 
against  him.  Because  of  this,  such  in  his  parish,  as 
had  been  seduced  into  the  measures  of  them  who  were 
now  endeavouring  the  overthrow  both  of  Church  and 
state,  were  ready,  upon  every  occasion,  to  bestow  on  him 
the  ill  names  then  so  much  in  use,  of,  "  a  man  addicted 
to  railing  and  bitterness  ;  a  malignant  and  one  Popishly 
affected."  But  disesteem  and  reproachful  language  were 
not  the  only  grievances  which  this  good  man  suffered 
under.  That  income,  which  the  laws  of  God  and  man 
had  made  his  just  right,  and  which  he  alwa^-s  endea- 
voured to  receive  with  as  much  peace  as  might  be,  was 
thought  too  much  for  him,  and  they  studied  to  lessen  it 
in  all  the  ways  they  could  :  besides  what  they  called  out- 
witting him  in  his  tithes,  of  the  contributions  and  great 
taxes  which  were  frequently  exacted,  a  sum  much  beyond 
the  just  proportion  was  still  allotted  to  him  ;  and  when 
any  forces  were  quartered  in  that  parish,  as  considerable 
numbers  often  were,  he  was  sure  to  have  a  double,  if  not 
a  greater,  share. 

This  usage  could  not  but  seem  very  strange  to  a  man, 
who  had  been  treated  with  respect  and  civility,  by  all  sorts 
of  persons  whom  he  had  hitherto  conversed  with  ;  and  it* 
was  impossible  for  him  to  reflect  upon  such  unsuitable 
returns,  without  a  great  deal  of  disquiet,  and  very  melan- 
choly thoughts.  The  barbarous  people  of  Syria  and 
Turkey,  whom  he  formerly  complained  of,  appeared  to 
him  now  of  much  greater  humanity  than  many  of  those 
he  was  engaged  to  live  with.  There  his  exalted  virtue 
had  won  upon  Mahometans,  and  had  made  even  Jew's 
and  Friars  revere  him ;  but  these  charms  had,  at  this  time, 
a  contrary  effect  on  the  pretenders  to  saintship  and  purer 
ordinances  at  home.  And  he,  who,  when  at  Aleppo, 
still  longed  to  be  in  England,  as  the  most  agreeable 
place  in  the  world,  now  considered  an  abode  in  the  East 
as  a  very  desirable  blessing.  Yea,  to  such  a  degree  of 
uneasiness  did  the, public  calamities,  and  the  particular 


POCOCK.  107 

troubles  he  was  every  day  exercised  with,  at  length  carry 
him,  that  he  began  to  form  a  design  of  leaving  his  native 
country  for  ever,  and  spending  the  remainder  of  his  days 
either  at  Alej)po  or  Constantinople :  in  which  places, 
from  his  former  experience,  he  thought  he  might  promise 
himself  fewer  injuries,  and  more  quiet  and  peace.  But 
upon  further  consideration,  and  a  due  use  of  those 
succours  which  both  reason  and  religion  afforded  him,  he 
fortified  his  mind  against  the  force  of  all  such  trials,  and 
learned  "  to  possess  his  soul  in  patience."  He  very  well 
knew,' that  it  is  the  part  of  "  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ, 
to  endure  hardship,"  and  that  he  that  has  devoted  him- 
self to  the  work  of  the  Gospel,  must  be  ready  in  "  afflictions 
and  distresses,  by  honour  and  dishonour,  by  evil  report 
as  well  as  good,  to  approve  himself  a  minister  of  God." 
He  considered  too,  that  his  case  was  not  singular,  but 
such  as  was  common,  at  that  time,  to  almost  all  others 
of  the  same  calling,  throughout  the  nation,  who  would 
not  humour  the  people  in  unreasonable  things,  nor 
descend  to  unlawful  compliances.  And  he  was  very 
well  satisfied,  that  all  the  evil  that  comes  to  pass  in  the 
world,  is  still  overruled  by  the  Providence  of  that  all- 
wise  God,  who,  in  the  moral  as  well  as  the  natural  world, 
brings  light  out  of  darkness,  and  order  out  of  confusion 
and  who  will  make  "  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  Him."  Upon  such  reflections  as  these, 
therefore,  he  resolved  to  stand  his  ground,  and  to  per- 
severe in  a  faithful  discharge  of  all  the  duties  he  was 
called  to,  notwithstanding  all  the  difficulties  that  attended 
it.  Having  thus  laid  aside  all  thoughts  of  a  remove,  to 
ease  himself  of  the  cares  of  housekeeping,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  a  family,  and  to  have  the  comfort  of  an  agreeable 
partner,  amidst  the  troubles  he  was  exposed  to,  he 
began  to  think  of  a  wife.  And  Providence  directed 
him  to  the  choice  of  a  very  prudent  and  virtuous  gentle- 
woman, namely,  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Burdett, 
Esq.,  of  West  Worlham,   in  Hampshire,   whom  he  mar- 


108  POCOCK. 

ried  about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1646,  and  by  whom 
God  was  pleased  to  bless  him  with  nine  children,  six 
sons  and  three  daughters. 

Immediately  after  the  execution  of  Archbishop  Laud, 
the  profits  of  Pocock's  professorship  were  seized  by  the 
sequestrators,  as  part  of  that  prelate's  estate.  But  in 
1647,  the  salary  of  the  lecture  was  restored  by  the  inter- 
position of  Selden,  who  had  considerable  interest  with 
the  usurpers.  In  1648,  on  the  reccommendation  of  Dr. 
Sheldon  and  Dr.  Hammond,  Pocock  was  nominated 
Hebrew  professor,  with  the  canonry  of  Christ  Church 
annexed,  by  Charles  I.,  then  a  prisoner  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  In  1649,  he  published  his  Specimen  Histories 
Arabum.  This  consists  of  extracts  from  the  work  of 
Abulfaragius,  in  the  original  Arabic,  together  with  a 
Latin  version  and  copious  notes.  In  November,  1650, 
he  was  ejected  from  his  canonry  of  Christ  Church,  for 
refusing  to  take  the  Engagement,  and  soon  after  a  vote 
passed  for  depriving  him  of  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic 
lectures  ;  but  upon  a  petition  from  the  heads  of  houses 
at  Oxford,  the  masters,  scholars,  &c.,  two  only  of  the 
whole  number  of  subscribers  being  loyalists,  this  vote 
was  reversed,  and  he  was  suffered  to  enjoy  both 
places. 

In  1655,  a  more  ridiculous  instance  of  persecution  was 
intended,  and  would  have  been  inflicted,  if  there  had 
not  yet  been  some  sense  and  spirit  left,  even  among 
those  who  had  contributed  to  bring  on  such  calamities. 
It  appears  that  some  of  his  parishioners  had  presented 
an  information  against  him  to  the  commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  Parliament,  "  for  ejecting  ignorant,  scanda- 
lous, insufficient,  and  negligent  ministers."  But  the 
connexion  of  the  name  of  Pocock  with  such  epithets 
was  too  gross  to  be  endured,  and,  we  are  told,  filled 
several  men  of  great  fame  and  eminence  at  that  time  at 
Oxford  with  indignation  :  in  consequence  of  which  they 
resolved  to  wait  upon  the  commissioners,  and  expostulate 


POCOCK.  109 

with  them  about  it.  In  the  number  of  those  who  went 
were,  Dr.  Seth  Ward,  Dr.  John  Wilkins,  Dr.  John 
WalUs,  and  Dr.  Owen,  who  all  laboured  with  much 
earnestness  to  convince  those  men  of  the  absurdity  of 
their  proceedings  ;  particularly  Dr.  Owen,  who  endea- 
voured, with  some  warmth,  to  make  them  sensible  of 
the  contempt  that  would  fall  upon  them,  when  it  should 
be  said,  that  they  had  turned  out  a  man  for  insufficiency, 
whom  all  the  learned,  not  of  England  only,  but  of  all 
Europe,  so  justly  admired  for  his  vast  knowledge  and 
extraordinary  accomplishments.  The  commissioners 
being  very  much  mortified  at  the  remonstrances  of  so 
many  eminent  men,  especially  of  Dr.  Owen,  in  whom 
they  had  a  particular  confidence,  thought  it  best  to  extri- 
cate themselves  from  their  dilemma  by  discharging 
Pocock  from  any  further  attendance.  In  the  same  year 
he  published  his  Porta  Mosis,  being  six  prefatory  dis- 
courses of  Moses  Maimonides's  Commentary  upon  the 
Mishna,  which  in  the  original  were  Arabic,  expressed  in 
Hebrew  characters,  together  with  his  own  Latin  trans- 
lation of  them,  and  a  very  large  appendix  of  miscella- 
neous notes.  In  1657,  Walton's  celebrated  Polyglott 
appeared,  in  which  Pocock  had  a  considerable  share. 
He  collated  the  Arabic  Pentateuch,  and  drew  up  a 
Preface  concerning  the  Arabic  Versions  of  that  part  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  reason  of  the  various  readings  in 
them.  He  contributed  the  loan  of  some  valuable  MSS. 
from  his  own  collection,  viz. — The  Gospels  in  Persian, 
his  Syriac  MS.  of  the  whole  Old  Testament,  and  two 
other  Syriac  MSS.,  together  with  an  Ethiopic  MS.  of 
the  Psalms.  In  1668,  his  translation  of  the  Annals  of 
Eutychius,  from  Arabic  into  Latin,  was  published  at 
Oxford,  in  2  vols,  4to.  This  was  undertaken  by  Pocock 
at  the  request  of  Selden,  who  bore  the  whole  expense 
of  the  printing,  although  he  died  before  it  appeared. 
Selden,  in  a  codicil  to  his  will,  bequeathed  the  property 
of  the  Annales   Eutychii   to   Langdaine    and    Pocock. 

VOL.    VIII.  L 


110  POCOCK. 

Immediately  after  the  Restoration,  Pocock  was  (June, 
1660)  replaced  in  his  Canonry  of  Christ  Church,  as 
originally  annexed  to  the  Hebrew  professorship  by 
Charles  I.,  and  on  September  20th,  took  his  degree 
of  D.D.  In  the  same  year,  he  was  enabled,  by  the 
liberality  of  Mr.  Boyle,  to  print  his  Arabic  translation 
of  Grotius  on  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion.  His 
next  publication,  in  1661,  was  an  Arabic  Poem,  entitled 
Lamiato'l  Ajam,  or  Carmen  Abu  Ismaelis  Tograi,  with 
his  Latin  translation  of  it,  and  large  notes  upon  it,  with 
a  preface  by  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  architypographus  to 
the  university,  who  had  the  care  of  the  press,  and  con- 
tributed a  treatise  of  his  own  on  the  Arabic  prosody. 
Pocock's  design  in  this  work  was,  not  only  to  give  a 
specimen  of  Arabian  poetry,  but  also  to  make  an  attain- 
ment of  the  Arabic  tongue  more  easy  to  those  who 
study  it;  and  his  notes,  containing  a  grammatical 
explanation  of  all  the  words  of  this  author,  were  un- 
questionably serviceable  for  promoting  the  knowledge  of 
that  language.  In  1663,  he  published,  at  Oxford,  his 
most  useful  work,  the  w^hole  of  Abulfaragius's  Historia 
Dynastiarum,  2  vols,  4to.  In  1677,  he  published  his 
Commentary  on  the  Prophecy  of  Micah  and  Malachi ; 
in  1685,  on  that  of  Hosea;  and  in  1691,  on  that  of 
Joel,  in  1674,  he  had  published,  at  the  expense  of 
the  university,  his  Arabic  translation  of  the  Church 
Catechism  and  the  Liturgy,  i.  e.  The  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayers,  The  Order  of  Administering  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  and,  The  Thirty-nine  Articles. 
He  died  on  the  10th  September,  1691,  after  a  gradual 
decay  of  some  months,  in  his  eighty-seventh  year. 

Of  this  great  man,  Dr.  Twells  remarks,  "  that  all  his 
words  and  actions  carried  in  them  a  deep  and  unfeigned 
sense  of  religion  and  true  piety ;  God  was  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  his  studies  and  undertakings  ;  to  His 
glory  they  were  devoted,  and  professedly  finished  by 
His  help,   as    appears    by    expressions,    sometimes   in 


POCOCK.  ill 

Arabic  and  Hebrew,  and  at  other  times  in  English, 
whi^h  we  find  not  only  in  his  printed  works,  but  also 
in  his  note-books,  and  writings  of  any  account. 

"In  his  public  duties  of  religion  he  was  very  punc- 
'  tual ;  all  the  time  he  resided  at  Christ  Church,  which 
was  more  than  thirty  years,  hs  was  seldom  absent  from 
cathedral  prayers,  oft  frequenting  them,  when  he  was 
not  thought  well  enough  to  go  abroad  upon  any  otlier 
occasion. 

"  In  his  pastoral  capacity,  so  long  as  he  resided  con- 
stantly at  Childry,  he  shewed  the  greatest  diligence  and 
faithfulness,  preaching  twice  every  Lord's  Day,  and 
catechizing  likewise,  when  the  length  of  days  would 
permit  him.  Nor  was  he  less  exact  in  discharging  the 
private  duties  of  his  function,  such  as  visiting  sick  and 
ancient  people,  and  the  like  ;  and  during  that  part  of 
his  life  in  which  his  attendance  upon  his  professorships 
and  canonical  residence  called  him  to  Oxford  for  the 
greatest  part  of  the  year,  he  took  a  most  conscientious 
care  to  supply  his  absence  by  an  able  curate,  of  whom 
he  strictly  required  the  same  laborious  course  of  duty, 
and  for  his  encouragement,  allowed  him  fifty  pounds 
per  annum,  besides  surplice  fees,  all  which  amounted 
to  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the  then  value  of  that 
rectory. 

"  As  a  member  and  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, though  with  all  due  charity  to  those,  who,  on  the 
score  of  conscience,  dissented  from  her,  he  steadily  con- 
formed to  her  appointments,  highly  reverenced  and  ap- 
proved every  part  of  her  constitution.  In  subscribing 
to  her  articles  his  hand  and  heart  went  together,  being 
an  enemy  to  all  prevarication,  however  coloured  or  pal- 
liated by  subtle  distinctions.  He  seemed  from  his 
youth  to  have  imbibed,  among  other  eminent  divines 
of  those  times,  an  opinion  of  the  illegality  of  usury, 
or  at  least  to  have  entertained  scruples  about  its  lawful- 
ness ;  but  this  appeared  rather  from  his  constant  prac- 


in  POLE. 

tice  of  lending  money  freely,  than  from  any  open  avowal 
of  his  sentiments  in  that  point :  his  friends  could  never 
get  from  him  his  reasons  against  usury,  and  the  cause 
of  his  reservedness  was,  that  the  thing  being  allowed 
by  our  laws,  and  not  disapproved  by  the  Church,  he 
would  disturb  neither  by  his  private  opinion.  How 
many  uncharitable  disputes  would  be  prevented,  if  every 
Christian  was  endued  with  this  laudable  moderation ! 
But  so  long  as  it  is  fashionable  to  have  no  concern 
for  the  peace  of  the  Church,  nor  reverence  for  authority, 
controversies  about  religion  will  increase  till,  without 
some  gracious  interposition  of  Providence,  they  eat  out 
out  the  vitals  of  it. 

"  It  would  be  endless  to  enumerate  all  the  virtues 
of  this  excellent  man,  or  to  be  particular  about  the 
constancy  and  frequency  of  his  devotions,  with  his  family, 
and  in  his  closet ;  his  strict  manner  of  observing  pub- 
lic fasts,  his  undissembled  grief  at  hearing  God's  name 
profaned,  or  the  Lord's  Day  unhallowed,  or  the  recital 
of  any  gross  immorality :  but  above  all,  his  charity 
under  each  branch  of  it,  giving  and  forgiving,  was  most 
exemplary. 

"The  largeness  of  a  family  was,  in  his  judgment, 
no  excuse  for  scanty  alms-giving :  but  besides  the  poor 
whom  he  daily  relieved  at  his  door,  he  gave  to  others 
quarterly  allowances.  His  charitable  disposition  was 
so  notorious,  and  brought  such  numbers  of  necessitous 
objects  to  him,  that  Dean  Fell,  himself  a  most  muni- 
ficent person,  used  complainingly  to  tell  Dr.  Pocock, 
that  he  drew  all  the  poor  of  Oxford  into  the  college." 
— Life  by  Twells. 


POLE,    REGINALD. 

Reginald    Pole    was   born   in   1500,    at    Stoverton,   or 
Stourton  Castle,  in  Staffordshire.      He  was  cousin   to 


POLE.  113 

ttenvy  VII.,  his  mother  being  the  daughter  of  the 
"false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clarence,"  brother  of  Edward 
IV.,  who  had  married  Richard  de  la  Pole,  Lord  Monta- 
cute.  He  was  educated  first  by  the  Carthusians  of  Shene, 
near  Pdchmond,  in  Surrey,  where  there  was  a  grammar 
school.  He  staid  there  five  years  ;  and  then  entered 
as  a  nobleman  in  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  w^iere  an 
apartment  was  assigned  him  in  the  president's  lodg- 
ings. Thomas  Linacre  and  William  Latimer  were 
his  tutors.  Few  things  could  prove  the  necessity  of 
a  Reformation  in  the  Church  more  than  the  fact  that, 
when  he  was  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  being  a 
layman,  he  was  nominated  by  the  king,  Prebendary 
of  Roscombe,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Salisbury;  and  held 
with  that  stall  the  Prebend  of  Yatminster  Secunda, 
in  the  same  church.  Soon  after,  he  had  the  Deanery 
of  Wimburne  Minster,  together  with  the  Deanery  of 
Exeter,  conferred  upon  him.  He  had  graduated  in 
1615,  but  he  was  not  in  holy  orders,  nor  had  even 
received  the  first  tonsure,  till  the  very  day  on  which 
he  was   appointed   a  cardinal  by  the  pope. 

In  1519,  the  youthful  dean  visited  the  University 
of  Padua;  which,  according  to  Erasmus,  was,  at  that 
time,  the  Athens  of  Europe.  On  his  return  to  England, 
in  1526,  he  was  received  at  court  with  every  demon- 
stration of  esteem  and  favour  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Queen 
Catherine.  This  princess  had  felt  all  the  horrors  of 
the  bloody  policy  by  which  the  death  of  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  was  made  a  necessary  stipulation  to  her  mar- 
riage, and  had  often  signified  her  forebodings  of  the 
vengeance  which  w^ould  wait  on  it.  It  was  apprehended 
that  the  title  of  the  House  of  York  might  one  day 
revive  in  this  young  prince;  and  Henry  VII.  and 
Ferdinand  had  got  rid  of  those  fears,  by  an  expedient 
suited  to  both  their  characters;  and,  by  adding  the 
mockery  of  justice  to  murder,  had,  on  a  pretended 
conspiracy,  taken  aw^ay  the  life  a  Prince,  whose  only 
L    3 


114  POLE. 

guilt  was  his  relation  to  the  crown.     The  queen  had 
already  done  everything  in   her  power  to  atone  for  the 
sin,  and  repair  the  injury  of  so  foul  a  deed.       The  Coun- 
tess of  Salisbury,  mother  to  Reginald  Pole,  being  sister 
to  the  unfortunate  victim  of  her  father's  jealousy,  she 
committed  the  care  of  the   Princess  Mary's    education 
to   her;    treated    her   and   and   all   her   children   with 
remarkable  affection ;    and  was  accustomed  to  say,  her 
mind  would  never  be  at  ease,  unless  the  crown  reverted 
again  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick's  family,   by  a  marriage 
of  one  of  his  sister's  sons  to  her  daughter ;    and  thus 
some  reparation   made   for   the   injustice   done   to   the 
brother :    and  amongst    all    that  lady's   numerous   off- 
spring, she  had  ever  shewn  a  predilection  to  Reginald. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  advantages  of  such  a  position, 
and  the   sunshine  of  royal  favour  which  encompassed 
him,    he   resolved   to   withdraw   from   it.        The   court 
was   become    a  scene  of  intrigue,  to  which  his  breast 
was   a   stranger.      He  was    a  constant   witness   to  the 
wanderings  of  a  prince,   to  whom  he  had  the  highest 
obligations,   and  whom  he  loved  with   all   the  sincerity 
of  a  loyal  and  thankful  heart:    nor   would   his  integ- 
rity   allow    him    to    interest  himself  less  in  the   case 
and  honour  of  the   Queen,  who  was  now  treated  with 
coldness    and    disregard.       However,*  that   this   retreat 
might  not  give  offence,  or  draw  on  him  his  displeasure, 
he  alleged  a   desire  of  prosecuting   his  studies,    where 
he  should  meet  with  fewer   avocations ;    and  obtained 
his    majesty's   consent   to    go    to    the    Carthusians    at 
Shene,    where    he    had    passed    several    years    of    his 
youth,    and  where   there  was  a   very  handsome    house, 
and   every  thing  fitted  to  his  purpose  within  the  inclo- 
sure  of  tbat  monastery. 

The  question  of  the  king's  divorce,  of  which  an 
account  is  given  in  the  Life  of  Cranmer,  soon  after 
arose,  and  Pole  sympathizing  with  Catherine  of  Aragon, 
and    naturally   wishing   to   be   out  of    the   way,    made 


POLE.  1]5 

his  desire  of  completing  his  theological  sudies,  a  plea 
for  his  going  to  Paris,  where  he  remained  till  October, 
1530. 

But  change  of  place,  did  not  save  him  from  respon- 
sibility and  trouble.  The  agents  of  Henry  VIII.  who 
had  determined  to  consult  the  universities  of  Europe, 
respecting  the  divorce,  arrived  at  Paris,  and  Pole  was 
solicited  to  concur  with  them  in  procuring  the  decision 
of  the  University  of  Paris  in  the  king's  favour.  As  this 
opinion  was  contrary  to  Pole's  sentiments,  he  was  thrown 
into  a  perplexity,  from  which  he  endeavoured  to  extricate 
himself  by  pleading  his  unfitness  for  such  a  business ; 
but  he  could  not  thereby  escape  the  king's  displeasure. 
After  his  return,  therefore,  he  thought  it  advisable  again 
to  retire  to  Shene,  where  he  spent  two  years  more,  un- 
molested, But  Henry's  impatience  under  the  delays 
he  met  with  respecting  the  divorce  having  brought 
him  to  the  final  resolution  of  throwing  himself  upon 
the  support  of  his  own  subjects,  it  became  a  step  of 
importance  to  gain  over  a  person  of  Pole's  rank  and 
reputation.  Both  hopes  and  menaces  were  therefore 
employed  to  shake  him,  and  he  was  persuaded  to  wait 
upon  the  king  in  order  to  give  him  all  the  satisfaction 
in  his  power.  Conscience,  however,  prevented  him  from 
concurring  in  the  arguments  for  the  divorce ;  and  though 
he  was  dismissed  with  tokens  of  regard,  yet  he  thought 
it  prudent  again  to  withdraw  to  the  continent.  He  took 
up  his  abode  successively  at  Avignon,  Padua,  and 
Venice,  applying  assiduously  to  the  study  of  divinity, 
and  cultivating  friendships  with  the  most  eminent  char- 
acters for  learning  and  piety. 

In  the  meantime  Henry  had  proceeded  to  extremities 
in  his  favourite  plans.  He  had  divorced  Catharine, 
married  Anne  Boleyn,  and  retaliated  the  hostility  of 
the  Roman  See,  by  declaring  himself  head  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  He  procured  a  book  to  be  written  in 
defence  of  this  title,  by  Dr.  Sampson,  Bishop  of  Chi- 


116  POLE. 

Chester,  which  he  caused  to  be  transmitted  to  Pole, 
perhaps  hoping  that  he  might  be  convinced  by  its  argu- 
ments. This,  however,  was  so  far  from  taking  place, 
that  Pole,  now  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  maxims  of 
Rome,  forgot  all  the  moderation  of  his  character,  and 
drew  up  a  Treatise,  "  De  Unitate  Ecclesiastica,"  in 
which  he  used  very  harsh  language  both  to  Sampson 
and  the  king,  comparing  the  latter  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
and  even  exciting  the  emperor  to  revenge  the  injury 
offered  to  his  aunt.  He  sent  his  work  to  Henry,  who 
could  not  fail  to  be  much  displeased  with  its  contents, 
as  were  indeed  some  of  the  writer's  friends  in  England. 
Henry  dissembled  his  resentment,  and  invited  Pole  to 
come  over  in  order  to  explain  some  passages  in  his 
Treatise  for  his  satisfaction ;  but  his  kinsman  was  too 
wary  to  expose  himself  to  the  fate  of  More  and  Fisher. 

The  king  now  kept  no  measures  with  him,  but  with- 
drew his  pension,  alienated  his  preferments,  and  caused 
a  bill  of  attainder  to  be  passed  against  him.  But  Pole 
had  now  a  new  sovereign.  By  Paul  III.  he  was  nomi- 
nated a  cardinal,  and,  according  to  Mr.  Hallam,  he 
became  an  active  instrument  of  the  pope  in  fomenting 
rebellion  in  England.  At  his  own  solicitation  he  was 
appointed  Legate  to  the  Low  Countries,  in  1537,  with 
the  sole  object  of  keeping  alive  the  flame  of  the  Northern 
Rebellion,  and  exciting  foreign  powers  as  well  as  the 
English  nation  to  restore  Popery  by  force,  if  not  to 
dethrone  Henry.  It  is  difficult,  says  the  historian, 
not  to  suspect  that  he  was  influenced  by  ambitious 
views  in  a  proceeding  so  treasonable  and  so  little  in 
accordance  with  his  polished  manners  and  temperate 
life.  Philips,  his  able  and  artful  biographer,  both 
proves   and  glories  in  his   treason. 

Upon  the  failure  of  these  designs,  he  was  sent  as 
legate  to  Viterbo,  where  he  remainded  till  1543.  In 
that  year  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  three  Papal 
legates   to   the    Council   of   Trent ;    and   when   it   was 


POLE.  117 

actually  assembled,  he  attended  upon  its  deliberations 
as  long  as  his  health  would  permit.  He  is  said  to  have 
held  the  orthodox  Protestant  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith ;  whence  he  incurred  some  suspicion  of  being 
too  favourable  to  Protestantism.  His  friendship  for 
Flaminio,  who  was  an  inmate  with  him  and  died  in 
his  house,  and  the  lenity  he  shewed  to  some  Protestants 
at  Viterbo,  were  alledged  as  further  grounds  for  suspect- 
ing his  religion  ;  yet  of  his  attachment  to  the  interests  of 
the  Papal  See  he  had  given  such  valid  proofs  as  would 
not  suffer  it  to  be  doubted.  He  was  therefore  confi- 
dentially employed  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  Pioman 
court  during  the  life  of  Paul,  and  at  that  pontiff's  death 
in  1549,  he  was  seriously  thought  of  as  his  successor. 
Indeed,  during  the  cabals  of  the  conclave,  he  was  twice 
actually  nominated;  and  at  the  second  time  was  waited 
upon  late  at  night  by  the  cardinals  to  perform  the  cere- 
mony of  adoration.  But  his  scrupulosity  in  objecting 
to  the  unseasonable  hour,  and  insisting  upon  a  delay 
till  morning,  gave  them  time  to  change  their  minds, 
and  he  thus  missed  the  tiara. 

After  this  he  retired  to  the  Benedictine  monastei^  at 
Maguzano,  in  the  territory  of  Venice,  and  there  he  re- 
mained till  the  year  1553,  when  on  the  accession  of 
Mary,  he  was  invited  to  return  to  England.  He  set 
out  in  September,  1554,  but  being  detained  by  contrary 
winds  at  Calais  until  November,  he  did  not  cross  the 
water  until  the  twenty-first  of  that  month  ;  when  arriving 
at  Dover  he  went  thence  by  land  to  Gravesend,  where 
being  met  by  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  the  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury, who  presented  him  with  the  repeal  of  the  act  of 
his  attainder,  that  had  passed  the  day  before,  he  went 
on  board  a  yacht,  which  carrying  the  cross,  the  ensign 
of  his  legation,  at  her  head,  conveyed  him  to  Whitehall, 
where  he  was  received  with  the  utmost  veneration  by 
their  majesties;  and  after  all  possible  honour  and  respect 
paid  to  him  there,  he  was  conducted  to  the  archbishop's 


118     -  POLE. 

palace  at  Lambeth,  the  destined  place  of  his  residence, 
which  had  been  sumptuously  fitted  T;ip  by  the  queen 
for  the  purpose.  On  the  27th  he  went  to  the  parlia- 
ment, and  made  a  long  speech,  inviting  them  to  a 
reconciliation  with  the  See  of  Rome  from  whence, 
he  said,  he  was  sent  by  the  common  pastor  of  Christen- 
dom to  reduce  them,  who  had  long  strayed  from  the 
inclosure  of  the  Church.  On  the  29th,  the  speaker 
reported  to  the  commons  the  substance  of  this  speech ; 
and  a  message  coming  from  the  lords  for  a  conference, 
in  order  to  prepare  a  supplication  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  See  of  Rome,  it  was  consented  to,  and  the  petition 
being  agreed  on,  was  reported  and  approved  by  both 
houses ;  so  that  being  presented  by  them  on  their  knees 
to  the  king  and  queen,  these  made  their  intercession 
with  the  cardinal,  who  thereupon  delivered  himself  in 
a  long  speech,  at  the  end  of  which  he  granted  them 
absolution.  This  done,  all  went  to  the  royal  chapel, 
where  "Te  Deum  "  was  sung  on  the  occasion.  Thus 
the  pope's  authority  being  now  restored,  the  cardinal 
two  days  afterwards  made  his  public  entry  into  London, 
with  all  the  solemnities  of  a  legate,  and  presently  set 
about  the  business  of  reforming  the  Church,  of  what 
they  called  heresy.  How  much  soever  he  had  formerly 
been  suspected  to  favour  the  Reformation;  yet  he  seemed 
now  to  be  much  altered,  knowing  that  the  Court  of  Rome 
kept  a  jealous  eye  upon  him  in  this  respect.  He  there- 
fore expressed  great  detestation  of  the  Reformers,  nor 
did  he  converse  much  with  any  that  had  been  of  that 
party.  He  came  into  England,  much  changed  from 
that  freedom  of  conversation  he  had  formerly  practised. 
He  was  reserved  to  all,  spoke  little,  and  put  on  an 
Italian  temper,  as  well  as  behaviour ;  making  Priuli  and 
Ormaneto,  two  Italians  whom  he  brought  with  him,  his 
only  confidants.  In  the  meantime,  the  queen  dispatched 
ambassadors  to  Rome,  to  make  obedience  in  the  name 
of  the  whole  kingdom  to  the  pope;    who  had  already 


POLE.  119 

proclaimed  a  jubilee  on  that  occasion.  But  these  messen- 
gers had  scarcely  set  foot  on  Italian  ground,  when  they 
were  informed  of  the  death  of  Julius,  and  the  election 
of  Marcellus  his  successor ;  and  this  pontiff  dying  also 
soon  after,  the  queen  upon  the  first  news  of  it,  recom- 
mended her  kinsman  to  the  popedom,  as  every  way  the 
fittest  person  for  it ;  and  dispatches  were  accordingly 
sent  to  Eome  for  the  purpose,  but  they  came  too  late, 
Peter  Caraffa,  who  took  the  name  of  Paul  IV,,  being 
elected  before  their  arrival. 

This  pope  who  had  never  liked  the  cardinal,  was  better 
pleased  with  Gardiner,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  whose 
temper  exactly  tallied  with  his  own.  In  this  disposition 
he  favoured  Gardiner's  views  upon  the  See  of  Canterbury. 
Xor  was  Pole's  nomination  to  that  dignity  confirmed  by 
the  pope,  until  after  the  death  of  this  rival.  The  queen 
however,  confiding  in  Pole  for  the  management  and 
regulation  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  granted  him  a  licence 
to  hold  a  Synod  on  the  second  of  November,  1554.  In 
this  convention,  the  legate  proposed  the  next  year  a 
book  he  had  prepared,  containing  such  regulations  as  he 
judged  might  be  the  best  means  of  extirpating  heresy ; 
these  w^ere  passed  in  the  form  of  twelve  decrees,  and  they 
are  so  many  proofs  of  his  good  temper,  which  disposed 
him  not  to  set  the  clergy  upon  persecuting  the  Protes- 
tants, but  rather  to  reform  themselves,  and  seek  to  reclaim 
others  by  a  good  example,  as  the  surest  method  to  bring 
back  the  stragglers  into  the  fold.  How  unsuitably  to  the 
temper  of  these  decrees,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  act  in 
many  instances  afterwards,  is  well  known.  The  same 
thing  is  confessed  also  by  Burnet,  who,  moreover, 
plainly  suggests  his  belief  of  the  report,  that  Cran- 
mer's  execution  was  of  Pole's  procuring.  It  is,  indeed, 
something  remarkable,  that  though  the  cardinal  had 
his  conge  d'elire,  as  well  as  two  bulls  dispatched 
from  Eome,  for  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  some 
months    before    Cranmers's    death:     and   deferred  his 


120  POLE. 

consecration  thereto,  apparently  because  he  thought 
it  indecent  while  Cranmer  lived ;  yet  he  chose  to 
have  it  done  the  very  next  day  after  the  prelate's 
execution ;  when  it  was  performed  by  the  Bishops  of 
London,  Ely,  Lincoln,  Rochester,  and  St.  Asaph,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Gray  Friars  at  Greenwich.  On  the  28th, 
he  went  in  state  to  Bow  Church,  where  the  Bishops  of 
Worcester  and  Ely,  after  the  former  had  said  mass,  put 
the  pall  upon  him.  Thus  invested,  he  went  into  the 
pulpit,  and  made  a  sermon  about  the  origin,  use,  and 
matter  of  that  vestment,  and  on  the  31st  of  the  same 
month,  he  was  installed  by  his  commissary.  In  Novem 
ber,  the  same  year,  1656,  he  w^as  elected  chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Oxford,  and  soon  after  of  Cambridge ;  and 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  following,  he  visited  both 
by  his  commissaries,  reforming  them  in  the  sense  of 
those  times,  but  not  without  committing  some  uncom- 
monly inhuman  persecutions. 

We  have  already  observed  how  unacceptable  he  was  to 
Paul  IV.,  who  now  sat  in  the  Papal  chair,  and  the  war 
which  England  was  drawn  into  with  France,  this  year 
by  King  Philip,  furnished  the  haughty  pontiff  with  a 
pretence  for  gratifying  his  ill-will  to  the  legate.  He  had 
passionately  espoused  the  quarrel  of  the  French  mon- 
arch, and  being  inflamed  to  see  England  siding  against 
his  friend,  he  resolved  to  revenge  it  on  Pole.  In  this 
spirit  having  declared  openly  that  it  might  now  be  seen 
how  little  the  cardinal  regarded  the  apostohc  see,  when 
he  suffered  the  queen  to  assist  their  enemies  against 
their  friends ;  he  first  made  a  decree  in  May,  for  a 
general  revocation  of  all  legates  and  nuncios  in  the 
King  of  Spain's  dominions.  Cardinal  Pole  being  men- 
tioned among  the  rest.  And  though  he  was  diverted  from 
carrying  his  project  into  execution  for  the  present,  by 
the  representations  of  Sir  Edward  Carne,  then  the  Eng- 
lish ambassador  at  Home  ;  yet  upon  the  fatal  blow  given 
to  the  French  at  St.  Quintin,  and  the  ill  success  of  his 


POLE.  121 

own  forces  in  Italy,  his  wrath  burst  out  with  fresh  fury, 
he  became  utterly  implacable,  accused  Pole  as  a  sus- 
pected heretic,  summoned  him  to  Rome  to  answer  the 
charge,  and  depriving  him  of  the  legatine  powers,  con- 
ferred them  upon  Peyto,  a  Franciscan  friar ;  whom  he 
had  sent  for  to  Rome,  and  made  a  cardinal  for  the  pur- 
pose, designing  him  also  to  the  See  of  Salisbury.  This 
appointment  was  made  in  September,  and  the  new  legate 
was  actually  on  the  road  to  England,  when  the  bulls 
came  to  the  hands  of  Queen  Mary,  who  having  been 
informed  of  their  contents  by  her  ambassador,  laid  them 
up  without  opening  them,  or  acquainting  her  cousin 
with  them ;  in  whose  behalf  she  wrote  to  the  pope,  and 
assuming  some  of  her  father  s  spirit,  she  wrote  also  to 
Peyto,  forbidding  him  to  proceed  on  his  journey,  and 
charging  him  at  his  peril  not  to  set  foot  on  English 
ground.  But  notwithstanding  all  her  caution  to  conceal 
the  matter  from  the  cardinal,  it  was  not  possible  to  keep 
it  long  a  secret,  and  he  no  sooner  became  acquainted 
with  the  pope's  pleasure,  or  rather  his  displeasure, 
than  out  of  that  implicit  veneration,  which  he  constantly 
and  unalterably  preserved  for  the  See  of  Rome,  he  volun- 
tarily laid  down  the  ensigns  of  his  legatine  power,  and 
forbore  the  exercise  of  it ;  dispatching  his  trusty  min- 
ister, Ormaneto,  to  Rome,  with  letters  wherein  he 
cleared  himself  in  such  submissive  terms,  as  it  is  said 
even  mollified  and  melted  the  obdurate  heart  of  Paul. 
The  truth  is,  the  pontiff  was  brought  into  a  better  tem- 
per by  some  late  events,  which  turned  his  regard  from 
the  French  towards  the  Spaniards,  and  the  storm  against 
Pole  blew  over  entirely,  by  a  peace  that  was  concluded 
this  year  between  the  pope  and  Philip ;  in  one  of  the 
secret  articles  of  which,  it  was  stipulated  that  the  car- 
dinal should  be  restored  to  his  legatine  powers.  But  he 
did  not  live  to  enjoy  the  restoration  a  full  twelvemonth, 
being  seized  with  a  double  quartan  ague,  which  carried 
him  off  the  stage  of  life  early  in  the  morning  of   the 

VIII.  M 


122  POLYCARP. 

18th  of  November,  1558.  His  death  is  said  to  have 
been  hastened  by  that  of  his  royal  mistress  and  kins- 
woman, Queen  Mary,  which  happened  about  sixteen 
hours  before. — Philijjs.    Dod.     Biog.  Brit. 


POLYCARP,     SAINT. 

Saint  Polycaep,  one  of  the  apostolical  fathers  and  a 
martyr,  was  born  during  the  reign  of  Nero ;  and,  as 
is  generally  supposed,  at  Smyrna,  in  Asia  Minor.  He 
was  a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  by  whom  he  was 
appointed  Bishop  of  Smyrna;  and  is  supposed  to  be 
the  "  angel  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna,"  to  whom  one 
of  the  epistles  in  Revelation  ii.,  is  directed  to  be  sent. 
It  is  also  stated  by  some  of  the  fathers  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  others  of  the  apostles  :  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  had  conversed  with  several  who  had  both 
heard  and  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  he 
was  accustomed  to  relate  the  conversations  which  passed 
between  himself  and  them. 

In  the  year  107,  Polycarp  was  visited  by  St.  Ignatius, 
on  his  way  to  martyrdom ;  Ignatius  having  been,  like 
Poljxarp,  a  disciple  of  St.  John.  Ignatius,  ignorant 
of  any  right  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  bishop  to  inter- 
fere in  the  concerns  of  another  diocese,  recommended 
his  own  See  of  Antioch  to  the  superintendence  of 
Polycarp,  and  afterwards  sent  an  epistle  to  the  Church 
of  Smyrna,  from  Troas,  where  Polycarp  wrote  his  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians. 

Polycarp  commences  his  epistle  in  the  true  spirit 
of  a  martyr,  by  denominating  '*  the  bonds  of  the 
saints  the  diadems  of  such  as  are  chosen  by  God 
and  our  Lord."  The  presbyters  he  exhorts  to  '•  ab- 
stain from  all  anger  and  covetousness ;  not  easily 
to  belie%'e  accusations,  nor  to  be  severe  in  judging, 
knowing  that  we  are  aU  debtors  by  sin.*'      He  then 


POLYCARP.  123 

enforces  upon  the  Philippians  the  duty  of  receiving 
Christ,  as  the  propitiation  for  sin,  and  example  of 
hoHness. 

"  Let  us,  therefore,  perpetually  cleave  to  the  hope  and 
pledge  of  our  righteousness,  even  to  Jesus  Christ ;  Who 
His  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the 
tree,  "Who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His 
mouth ;  but  endured  all  for  us  that  we  might  live 
through  Him.  Let  us,  therefore,  be  imitators  of  His 
patience ;  and  if  we  suffer  for  His  Name,  we  glorify 
Him ;  for  this  example  he  has  given  us  by  Himself, 
and  so  have  w^e  believed."  He  afterwards  offers  up 
this  holy  aspiration  in  their  behalf; — "  Now  the  God 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  ever- 
lasting High  Priest  Himself,  the  Son  of  God,  even 
Jesus  Christ,  build  you  up  in  faith  and  truth,  and 
in  all  meekness  and  unity,  in  patience  and  long  suf- 
fering, in  forbearance  and  purity;  and  grant  unto  you 
a  lot  and  portion  among  His  saints,  and  to  us  with 
you,  and  to  all  that  are  under  the  heavens,  who  shall 
believe  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  His  Father, 
who  raised  Him  from  the  dead.  Pray  for  all  saints  ; 
pray  also  for  kings,  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  and 
for  those  who  persecute  and  hate  you,  and  for  the 
enemies  of  the  cross,  that  your  fruit  may  be  manifest 
in  all  things,  and  that  ye  may  be  perfect  in  Christ." 

The  controversy  with  respect  to  the  proper  day  on 
which  Easter  should  be  kept,  becoming  warm  between 
the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Churches,  Polycarp,  in 
L58,  travelled  to  Rome  to  confer  with  Anicetus  the 
bishop  of  that  city.  The  pope  was  not  then  regarded 
as  the  centre  of  unity,  or  the  matter  would  have  been 
settled  at  once.  Polycarp's  object  was  to  convince 
Anicetus  that  he  was  in  the  wrong,  but  when  he  did 
not  succeed  in  this,  he  did  i\pt  for  a  moment  defer 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

It  is  indeed  sinc^ular  that  a  circumstance  of  so  little 


124  POLYCAEP. 

importance  in  itself  should  at  so  early  a  period,  and 
during  times  of  persecution,  have  excited  so  much  inter- 
est in  the  Christian  world.  The  one  party  were  of  opinion 
that  it  should  be  observed  like  the  Jewish  Passover,  as 
a  fixed  feast  at  the  full  moon  ;  the  other  contended  that 
it  should  be  considered  as  a  moveable  festival,  and  that 
it  should  be  observed  on  the  Lord's  day  following.  Each 
party  derived  their  own  practice  from  apostolical  tra- 
dition :  Anicetus,  and  the  generality  of  the  Western 
Churches,  favoured  the  latter  practice ;  Polycarp,  and 
the  Eastern  Churches,  the  former.  It  is  not  impro- 
bable that  they  were  both  in  the  right  as  to  fact ;  it 
being  the  known  practice  of  the  apostles  to  become 
all  things  to  all  men  in  matters  of  indifference,  and 
to  comply  with  the  customs  of  every  place  they  came 
to,  as  far  as  they  innocently  could.  Hence  Polycarp 
might  know  that  St.  John,  out  of  this  prudential  com- 
pliance, kept  Easter  upon  one  day  at  one  place,  and 
Anicetus  might  be  equally  certain  that  St.  Peter  ob- 
served it  upon  another  day  at  another  place,  for  the 
same  reason.  The  error  then  here  committed  was  a 
mistake  in  judgment,  and  not  in  fact,  a  disproportioned 
and  excessive  zeal  in  a  matter  not  worth  contending 
for. 

But  though  Polycarp  and  Anicetus  could  not  come  to 
an  agreement,  they  agreed  to  differ.  They  received  the 
Holy  Communion  together,  and  Anicetus,  according  to 
the  Christian  courtesy  of  the  age,  gave  Polycarp  prece- 
dence, though  in  his  own  city,  and  by  Polycarp  the 
elements  were  consecrated. 

Whilst  Polycarp  continued  in  Rome,  he  became  en- 
gaged in  a  much  more  important  controversy ;  and  his 
labours  appear  to  have  been  attended  with  considerable 
benefit  to  the  cause  of  Christianity.  The  heresy  of 
Marcion  was  at  that  ti^le  prevalent  in  the  city ;  and 
several  persons,  who  had  once  made  a  profession  of  the 
true  faith,  were  seduced  by  it.     In  the  meantime  Mar- 


POLYCARP.  ]95 

cion,  in  order  to  give  weight  to  his  sentiments,  endea- 
voured to  insinuate  into  the  'minds  of  the  people, 
that  there  was  an  agreement  between  himself  and  Poly- 
carp.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Marcion  should  make 
such  an  attempt,  or  that  Poljcarp  should  consider  it  as 
his  duty  to  use  the  most  decisive  measures  to  disclose 
the  falsehood  of  the  heretic.  Marcion  meeting  him  one 
day  in  the  street,  called  out  to  him,  "  Polycarp,  own  us," 
"  I  do,"  replied  the  zealous  bishop,  "own  thee, — to  be 
the  first-born  of  Satan." 

Some  years  after  the  return  of  Polycarp  from  Rome 
and  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  Christians 
were  persecuted  in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire  with 
unrelenting  rigour.  And  many  were  called  upon  at 
Smyrna  as  well  as  in  other  places  to  seal  their  profession 
with  their  blood. 

During  this  awful  season  Polycarp  "  in  patience 
possessed  his  soul,  "  neither  disheartened  by  the  fury 
of  his  enemies,  nor  countenancing  the  fanaticism  of  the 
times  in  courting  the  persecution  of  his  enemies. 

But  the  cry  of  the  populace  soon  reached  his  ears, 
"Take  away  the  Atheists  ;  let  Polycarp  be  sought  for." 
Three  days  previous  to  his  death,  Polycarp  was  fa- 
voured with  a  vision  whilst  engaged  in  prayer,  in  which 
it  was  figuratively  represented  to  him  that  he  should 
be  burnt  alive.  The  place  of  his  retreat  was  extorted 
from  a  young  man  of  his  household,  and  his  enemies 
immediately  afterwards  entered  his  dwelling.  As  he 
was,  however,  at  that  time  lying  down  in  an  upper 
room,  connected  with  the  flat  roof  of  the  house,  he 
might  still  have  possibly  escaped  them.  But  he  now 
deemed  it  his  duty  no  longer  to  avoid  their  scrutiny ; 
thinking  that  he  could  not  give  a  nobler  testimony 
to  his  uprightness  and  confidence  in  God,  than  by  shew- 
ing to  the  world  that  these  were  a  sufficient  security 
to  him  in  whatever  dangers  he  might  be  involved.  No 
sooner,  therefore,  had  he  heard  that  his  enemies  were 

M  3 


126  POLYCARP. 

at  hand  than  he  calmly  exclaimed,  "The  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done,"  and,  ^'ith  a  composed  countenance, 
entered  into  their  presence. 

The  advanced  age  of  Polycarp,  and  the  sanctity  of 
his  appearance,  sensibly  impressed  them.  Some  of 
them  even  said,  "  Surely  it  is  not  worth  while  to  appre- 
hend so  old  a  man  !  "  In  the  mean  time,  the  martyr 
courteously  ordered  refreshment  to  be  set  before  them ; 
and,  having  obtained  permission  to  engage  in  prayer, 
he  stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  prayed  aloud  with 
remarkable  fervour  and  devotion  for  two  successive 
hours.  The  spectators  were  astonished  at  the  scene ; 
and  many  of  them  repented  that  they  were  come  to 
seize  so  divine  a  character. 

As  soon  as  he  had  ended  his  devotions,  in  which 
he  had  referred  to  the  Church  in  general,  and  to  various 
individuals  that  were  personally  known  to  him,  his 
guards  set  him  on  an  ass,  and  led  him  towards  the 
city.  Whilst  on  the  road,  they  were  met  by  Herod, 
the  Irenarch,  or  keeper  of  the  peace,  and  his  father 
Nicetas,  who  took  him  into  their  chariot,  and  for  some 
time,  by  promises  and  threatenings,  endeavoured  to 
induce  him  to  sacrifice  to  the  heathen  gods.  Finding, 
at  length,  that  he  remained  unmoved,  they  abused  the 
old  man,  and  then  cast  him  down  from  the  chariot 
with  such  violence  that  his  thigh  was  severely  bruised 
by  the  fall.  He,  however,  cheerfully  went  on  with 
his  guards  to  the  stadium,  as  though  unhurt.  As  he 
was  entering  the  assembly,  a  voice  from  heaven  is  said 
to  have  addressed  him; — "Be  strong,  Polycarp,  and 
behave  yourself  like  a  man!  "  None  saw  the  speaker; 
but  many  that  were  present  heard  the  voice.  When 
he  was  brought  before  the  tribunal,  the  proconsul, 
struck  with  his  appearance,  earnestly  exhorted  him  to 
pity  his  advanced  age,  to  swear  by  the  fortune  of  Caesar, 
and  to  say,  *'  Away  with  the  Atheists,"  a  term  of  re- 
proach then  commonly  attached  to  the  Christians.      The 


POLYCARP.  U% 

saint,  with  his  hand  directed  to  the  multitude,  and 
his  eyes  Hfted  up  to  heaven,  with  a  solemn  countenance, 
said,  *'  Away  with  the  Atheists ;"  thereby  intimating 
his  fervent  desire  that  true  religion  might  prosper, 
and  impiety  be  restrained.  The  proconsul  still  con- 
tinued to  urge  him  to  apostatize.  "  Reproach  Christ," 
said  he,  "  and  I  will  immediately  release  you,"  Fired 
with  a  holy  indignation,  the  aged  martyr  replied, 
"Eighty  and  six  years  have  I  served  Him,  and  He 
hath  never  wronged  me;  how  then  can  I  blaspheme 
my  King  and  my  Saviour !  "  Being  still  urged  to 
recant,  he  added,  "  If  you  affect  ignorance  of  my  real 
character,  hear  me  plainly  declare  what  I  am — I  am 
a  Christian."  "  I  have  wild  beasts,"  said  the  procon- 
sul, "  I  will  expose  you  to  them,  unless  you  repent." 
"Call  them,"  cried  the  martyr.  "We  Christians 
are  determined  in  our  minds  not  to  change  from  good 
to  evil."  "I  will  tame  your  spirit  by  fire,"  said  the 
other,  "  since  you  despise  the  wild  beasts,  if  you  will 
not  recant."  "  You  threaten  me  with  fire,"  answered 
Polycarp,  which  burns  for  an  hour ;  but  you  are  igno- 
rant of  the  future  judgment,  and  of  the  fire  of 
eternal  punishment,  reserved  for  the  ungodly. — But 
why  do  you  delay?       Do  what  you  please." 

Firm  and  intrepid  he  stood  before  the  council,  not 
only  contemning,  but  even  desirous  of  death.  In  the 
meantime  the  proconsul  was  evidently  embarrassed ; 
but  at  length  he  sent  a  herald  to  proclaim  thrice  in  the 
assembly,  "  Polycarp  has  professed  himself  a  Christian." 

At  first  the  populace  desired  that  a  lion  should  be  let 
out  against  him ;  but,  as  this  could  not  then  conveni- 
ently be  done,  as  the  shews  of  wild  beasts  were  ended, 
they  cried  out  with  one  voice,  "  Polycarp  shall  be  burnt 
alive."  The  sentence  was  executed  with  all  possible 
speed;  for  the  people  immediately  gathered  fuel  from 
the  work-shops  and  baths,  the  poor  infatuated  Jews  dis- 
tinguishing themselves  in  this  employment  with  pecu- 


128  POLYCARP. 

liar  malice.  In  the  meantime  the  martyr  cheerfully 
awaited  his  fate,  fearing  neither  death,  nor  the  horrible 
form  in  which  it  was  now  presented  to  him. 

Every  thing  being  at  length  prepared  for  burning  him, 
the  executioners  were  proceeding  to  nail  him  to  the 
stake,  when  he  exclaimed,  "  Let  me  remain  as  I  am, 
for  He  Who  giveth  me  strength  to  sustain  the  fire,  will 
enable  me  also,  without  being  secured  by  nails,  to  re- 
main unmoved  by  the  fire."  They,  therefore,  only  bound 
him. 

Polycarp  then  offered  up  the  following  prayer  : — "  0 
Lord  God  Almighty,  the  Father  of  Thy  Beloved  and 
Blessed  Son  Jesus  Christ,  through  Whom  we  have 
attained  the  knowledge  of  Thee ;  the  God  of  Angels 
and  principalities,  and  of  every  creature,  and  of  all  the 
just  that  live  in  Thy  sight !  I  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  vouchsafed  to  bring  me  to  this  day  and  this  hour  ; 
that  I  should  have  a  part  in  the  number  of  Thy  Martyrs 
in  the  cup  of  Christ,  for  the  resurrection  to  eternal  life 
both  of  soul  and  body,  in  the  incorruption  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  among  whom  may  I  be  accepted  before  Thee 
this  day,  as  a  sacrifice  well  savoured  and  acceptable,  as 
Thou,  the  faithful  the  true  God,  hast  ordained,  promised, 
and  art  now  fulfilliug.  Wherefore  I  praise  Thee  for  all 
those  things  ;  I  bless  Thee,  I  glorify  Thee,  by  the  eternal 
High  Priest,  Jesus  Christ,  Thy  Beloved  Son,  by  Whom, 
and  with  Whom,  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  glory  to  Thee 
both  now  and  for  ever.     Amen." 

As  soon  as  Polycarp  had  finished  his  prayer,  the 
executioners  lighted  the  fire,  which  blazed  to  a  great 
height ;  and  the  flame,  making  a  kind  of  arch,  like 
the  sail  of  a  ship  filled  with  wind,  surrounded  the 
body  of  the  holy  martyr.  One  of  the  executioners 
perceiving  that  his  body  was  not  burnt,  plunged  his 
sword  into  it,  and  then  cast  it  down  into  the  flames, 
where  it  was  soon  consumed.  And  now,  like  another 
Elijah,  he  ascended  in  a  chariot  of  fire;  but  not  with- 


POLYCRATES.  120 

out  having  first  communicated  a  portion  of  his  spirit 
to  those  around  him. 

This  venerable  saint  was  martyred  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  hundred  and  sixty- seven,  and  about  the  one 
hundred  and  twentieth  year  of  his  own  age.  Eleven 
Christians  suffered  with  him. 

The  only  writing  of  Polycarp  which  we  possess  is  the 
Epistle  to  the  Philippians  mentioned  above.  It  is  one 
of  the  writings  of  the  apostolical  Fathers  translated  by 
Archbishop  Wake,  who  has  also  translated  the  account 
of  Polycarp 's  death  written  in  the  name  of  the  Church 
of  Smyrna. — Eusebiiis.     Irenceus.     Wake.     Cox. 


POLYCEATES. 

PoLYCEATEs  flourished  towards  the  close  of  the  second 
century.     He  bore  a  distinguished  part  in  the  contro- 
versy respecting  the  observance  of  Easter,  being  at  that 
time  Bishop  of  Ephesus.     The  Eastern  Church  main- 
tained that  it  should  be  observed  on  the  fourteenth  day 
after  the  new  moon  in  March,  on  whatever  day  of  the 
week  it  should  fall,  the  Western  Church  kept  it  on  the 
Sunday.       Victor,    Bishop    of    Eome,    called  upon  the 
Eastern  Churches  to  conform  to  the  rule  of  the  Western 
Church.     Upon  this  Polycrates  convened  a  numerous 
synod  of  the  bishops  of  Asia,  who,  after  taking  the  lordly 
requisition  of  Victor  into  consideration,    determined  to 
adhere  to   their   own   rule.       With   their   approbation, 
Polycrates  wrote  to  Victor,  informing  him  of  their  reso- 
lution.    Exasperated  at  their  answer,  Victor  broke  off 
communion   with   them,    and   excluded  them   from   all 
fellowship  with  the  Church  of  Rome.     The  letter  which 
Polycrates  sent  to  Victor  is  no  longer  extant ;  but  there 
are  two  fragments  of  it  preserved  by  Eusebius. — Eusebius. 
Jerome. 


130  PONTIUS,  CONSTANTINE. 


PONTIUS. 

Pontius  flourished  about  the  year  250,  and  was  probably 
a  native  of  Africa.  He  was  deacon  to  St.  Cyprian  and 
is  chiefly  celebrated  as  the  author  of  the  Life  and  Papers 
of  St.  Cyprian.     He  is  supposed  to  have  died  a  martyr 

in  26S.—(See  St.  Cyprians  Works.) 


PONTIUS,  CONSTANTINE. 

CoNSTANTiNE  PoNTius  was  bom  at  St.  Clement,  in  New 
Castile,  and  was  educated  in  the  University  of  Valladolid. 
His  historical  name,  Pontius,  has  been  curiously  derived. 
His  real  name  was  De  la  Fuente,  and  this  we  are  told 
became  in  Latin  Fontius,  and  Fontius  became  Pontius. 
He  was  Canon  and  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Seville.  He 
was  preacher  to  Charles  V.,  (some  say  his  confessor)  and 
accompanied  his  son,  Philip  IL,  to  England.  In  Eng- 
land, his  mind  was  opened  to  the  errors  of  Piomanism, 
and  he  embraced  the  principles  of  the  Reformation.  On 
his  return  to  Spain  he  preached  manfully  against  the 
errors  of  Romanism,  Hence  he  drew  on  himself  many 
attacks  from  the  priests  and  monks,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Seville,  president  of  the  conclave  of  the  Inquisition, 
against  which  he  defended  himself  with  great  skill  and 
address.  At  length  they  made  a  seizure  of  his  books, 
which  he  had  carefully  endeavoured  to  conceal;  and 
among  them  was  found  one  in  his  own  handwriting, 
containing  a  pointed  condemnation  of  the  leading  points 
in  the  Popish  creed.  When  this  book  was  produced,  he 
undauntingly  avowed  it,  and  declared  his  determination 
to  maintain  the  truth  of  its  contents,  desiring  them, 
as  they  had  now  a  full  confession  of  his  principles,  to 
give  themselves  no  further  trouble  in  procuring  witnesses 
against  him,  but  to  dispose  of  him  as  they  pleased. 
From  this  time   he  was  kept  in  prison  for  two  years, 


POOLE.  131 

under  a  sentence  of  condemnation  to  the  flames ;  but 
before  the  day  of  the  Auto  da  Fe  on  which  it  was  to  be 
carried  into  execution,  he  died  of  a  dysentery,  occa- 
sioned by  the  excessive  heat  of  his  place  of  confine- 
ment, and  the  bad  quality  of  his  food.  This  event 
took  place  in  1559.  He  was  burnt  in  effigy.  His 
works  are : — Commentaries  on  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon, 
on  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  on  the  Song  of  Songs, 
and  on  the  Book  of  Job,  the  substance  of  which  was  de- 
livered in  his  course  of  theological  lectures  at  Seville ;  A 
Summary  of  the  Christian  Doctrine,  printed  in  Spanish, 
at  Antwerp;  Six  Sermons  on  the  First  Psalm,  in  the 
same  language,  and  published  at  the  same  place,  in 
1556  ;  The  Confession  of  a  Sinner,  marked  in  the 
index  as  particularly  deserving  of  condemnation  ;  and,  A 
Catechism  at  large. — Bayle.     Moreri. 


POOLE,    MATTHEW. 

Matthew  Poole  was  born  at  York,  in  1624,  and  from 
the  Grammar  School  at  York,  he  proceeded  to  Emmanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  embraced  the  doctrines 
of  Presbyterianism.  In  1648,  he  was  made  Rector 
of  St.  Michael  le  Querne,  in  London,  where  he  pub- 
lished a  variety  of  controversial  works,  and  bore  a  pro- 
minent part  in  the  Presbyterian  movement.  At  the 
Restoration,  he  was,  of  course,  obliged  to  resign  a  living 
which  he  never  had  a  right  to  hold.  Having  an  inde- 
pendent fortune,  he  now  determined  to  withdraw  from 
controversy  in  the  narrow  sense  of  the  word,  and  he 
became  a  student. 

He  commenced  his  celebrated  book,  the  Synopsis  Cri- 
ticorum  aliorumque  S.  Scripturse  Interpretum,  which 
contains  an  abridgment  of  the  Critici  Sacri,  together 
with  extracts  from  other  authors,  and  from  critical  trea- 
tises and  pamphlets  of  less  note,  but  often  of  conside- 


132  POOLE. 

rable  value.  A  man  so  profitably  and  peaceably  employed 
was  not  only  unmolested,  but  was  patronized  by  perso-jis. 
in  power. 

When  the  work  was  in  a  state  of  sufficient  forward- 
ness to  be  sent  to  the  press,  Charles  II.  granted  him 
a  patent  for  the  privilege  of  printing  it;  and  in  1669, 
the  first  two  volumes  were  published  in  London,  in  large 
folio,  which  were  afterwards  followed  by  three  others.  The 
publication  of  this  work  involved  Poole  in  a  dispute  with 
Cornelius  Bee,  the  publisher  of  the  Critici  Sacri,  who 
accused  him  of  invading  his  property  by  printing  the 
Synopsis.  In  1666,  Poole  published  a  treatise  con- 
cerning the  Infallibility  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
entitled.  The  Nullity  of  the  Romish  Faith ;  or  a  Blow 
at  the  Romish  Faith,  &c.  8vo ;  which  was  followed,  in  the 
next  year,  by  his  Dialogues  between  a  Popish  Priest  and 
an  English  Protestant,  wherein  the  principal  Points  and 
Arguments  of  both  Religions  are  truly  proposed,  and  fully 
examined,  8vo.  He  soon  after  retired  to  Holland,  where 
he  died  at  Amsterdam,  in  October,  1679,  in  the  fifty-sixth 
year  of  his  age. 

Besides  the  articles  already  enumerated,  he  was  the 
author  of: — A  Letter  to  the  Lord  Charles  Fleetwood,  1659, 
4to,  relating  to  the  state  of  affairs  at  that  period ;  a  short 
Latin  Poem,  and  some  Epitaphs,  which  evince  proofs  of 
classical  taste  and  genius  ;  some  Sermons,  in  the  collection 
by  various  Nonconformist  ministers,  entitled.  Morning 
Exercises  ;  some  single  Sermons ;  a  preface  to  a  volume  of 
Posthumous  Sermons,  by  Mr.  Nalton,  with  some  account 
of  his  character  ;  and  he  left  behind  him,  in  MS.,  Anno- 
tations on  the  Bible,  in  English,  which  his  death  prevented 
him  from  extending  further  than  Isaiah,  Iviii.  The  work 
was  afterwards  continued  by  other  hands.  These  Anno- 
tations were  printed  in  London,  in  1685,  in  two  volumes 
folio,  and  reprinted  in  1700,  which  is  usually  called  the 
best  edition,  although  it  is  far  from  being  correct.  A 
second  edition  of  the  Synopsis  was  printed  at  Frankfort, 


POTTER,  BARNABAS.  133 

in  1678,  in  5  vols,  fol ;  and  a  third  at  Utrecht,  supcrintpnded 
by  Leusden,  in  16^6,  A  fourth  edition  was  printed  at 
Frankfort,  in  1694,  in  5  vols,  4to  ;  and  a  fifth  at  the  same 
place,  in  1709,  in  6  vols.  fol.  The  two  last  mentioned 
editions  have  additions  and  improvements,  criticisms 
on  the  Apocrypha,  and  a  defence  of  the  compiler  against 
the  censures  of  father  Simon. — Wood.  Calamy.  Need. 
Nicewn. 


POTTER,    BARNABAS. 

Barnabas  Potter  was  born  at  Kendal,  in  1578,  and 
was  educated  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  of  which 
college  he  became  a  fellow.  On  his  ordination,  he 
became  a  favourite  preacher  among  the  Puritans,  and 
officiated  as  lecturer,  first  at  Abington,  and  then  at 
Totness,  in  Devonshire.  In  1610,  he  was  chosen 
Principal  of  Edmund  Hall,  but  resigned,  and  was 
never  admitted  into  that  office.  In  1616,  on  the  death 
of  Dr.  Airay,  he  was  elected  Provost  of  Queen's' College, 
which  station  he  retained  for  about  ten  years ;  and 
being  then  one  of  the  king's  chaplains,  resigned  the 
provostship  in  favour  of  his  nephew,  the  subject  of 
the  next  article.  In  1628,  he  was  nominated  Bishop 
of  Carlisle.  Wood  adds,  that  in  this  promotion 
he  had  the  interest  of  Bishop  Laud,  "  although  a 
thorough-paced  Calvinist."  He  continued,  however,  a 
frequent  and  favourite  preacher ;  and,  says  Fuller, 
"was  commonly  called  the  Puritanical  Bishop;  and 
they  would  say  of  him,  in  the  time  of  King  James, 
that  organs  would  blow  him  out  of  the  church  ;  which 
I  do  not  believe ;  the  rather,  because  he  was  loving 
of  and  skilled  in  vocal  music,  and  could  bear  his  own 
part  therein."  He  died  in  1642,  and  was  interred 
in  the  Church  of  St.  Paul,  Covent  Garden.  Wood 
mentions  as  his,  Lectures  on  some  Chapters  of  Genesis, 

VOL.    VIII.  N 


13i  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHEE. 

but  knows  not  whether  they  were  printed ;  and  several 
Sermons ;  one,  The  Baronet's  Burial,  on  the  burial 
of  Sir  Edmund  Seymour,  Oxon.  1613,  4to. ;  and 
another,  on  Easter  Tuesday,  one  of  the  Spital  Sermons. 
— Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


POTTER,    CHRISTOPHEE. 

Christopher  Potter,  nephew  to  Barnabas  Potter,  was 
born  at  Kendal,  in  1591,  and  was  educated  at  Queen's 
College,  Oxford,  of  which  college  he  became  chaplain 
in  1613.  In  1620,  he  succeeded  Dr.  Barnabas  Potter 
as  provost. 

In  1633,  he  published  his  Answer  to  a  late  Popish 
Pamphlet,  entitled.  Charity  Mistaken.  The  cause  was 
this :  a  Jesuit  who  went  by  the  name  of  Edward  Knott, 
but  whose  true  name  was  Matthias  Wilson,  had  published, 
in  1630,  a  little  book- in  8vo,  called  Charity  Mistaken, 
with  the  want  whereof  Catholics  are  unjustly  charged, 
for  affirming,  as  they  do  with  grief,  that  Protestancy 
unrepented  destroys  Salvation.  Dr.  Potter  published 
an  answer  to  this  at  Oxford,  1633.  in  8vo,  with  this 
title,  "  Want  of  Charitie  justly  charged  on  all  such 
Bomanists  as  dare  (without  truth  or  modesty)  affirme, 
that  Protestancie  destroyeth  Salvation ;  or,  an  Answer 
to  a  late  Popish  pamphlet,  entitled,  Charity  Mistaken," 
&c.  The  second  edition  revised  and  enlarged,  w^as 
printed  at  London,  1634,  in  8vo.  Prynne  observes, 
that  Bishop  Laud,  having  perused  the  first  edition, 
caused  some  things  to  be  omitted  in  the  second.  It  is 
dedicated  to  Charles  I. ;  and  in  the  dedication  Dr. 
Potter  observes,  that  it  was  "undertaken  in  obedience 
to  his  majesty's  particular  commandment."  In  this 
controversy,  as  is  well  known,  the  celebrated  Chilling- 
worth  was  afterwards  engaged.  In  1635,  Dr.  Potter 
was  promoted   to  the  Deanery  of  Worcester. 


POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER.  135 

In  early  life,  like  many  of  his  contemporaries,  Dr. 
Potter  had  been  Calvinistically  inclined  ;  but,  like  Bishop 
Sanderson,  Archbishop  Usher,  and  others,  at  a  later 
period  of  life,  he  saw  his  error,  and  avowed  an  altera- 
tion in  his  sentiments.  It  was  while  he  was  Dean 
of  Worcester,  (Dr.  Wordsworth  calls  him  Dean  of 
Windsor,)  that  he  wrote  the  Letter  to  Mr.  Vicars, 
which  was  re-published  at  Cambridge,  in  1719,  in  a 
"  Collection  of  Tracts  concerniug  Predestination  and 
Providence." 

Having  been  taxed  by  his  friend  with  the  desertion 
of  his  former  principles,  and  the  charge  being  coupled 
with  an  insinuation,  that  this  change  was  brought  about 
by  court  influence,  and  put  on  to  please  Archbishop 
Laud,  &c.  *'  It  appears,"  says  he,  ''  by  the  w^hole 
tenour  of  your  letter,  that  you  are  affected  wdth  a 
strong  suspicion,  that  I  am  turned  Arminian;  and 
you  further  guess  at  the  motive,  that  some  sprinkling 
of  court  holy  water,  like  an  exorcism  hath  enchanted 
and  conjured  me  into  this  new  shape.  How  loth  am  I 
to  understand  your  meaning  !  And  how  fain  would  I 
put  a  fair  interpretation  upon  these  foul  passages,  if  they 
were  capable  !  What  man  !  not  an  Arminian  only,  but 
hired  into  that  faith  by  carnal  hopes  !  one  that  can 
value  his  soul  at  so  poor  a  rate,  as  to  sell  it  to  the  times, 
or  weigh  or  sway  his  conscience  with  money  !  My  good 
friend,  how  did  you  thus  forget  me,  and  yourself ;  and 
the  strict  charge  of  our  Master,  Judge  not  ?  Well ; 
you  have  my  pardon  :  and  God  Almighty  confirm  it 
unto  you  with  His !  But  to  prevent  you  error  and  sin 
in  this  kind  hereafter,  I  desire  you  to  believe  that  I 
neither  am,  nor  ever  will  be  Arminian.  I  am  resolved 
to  stand  fast  in  that  liberty,  which  my  Lord  hath  so 
dearly  bought  for  me.  In  divine  truths,  my  conscience 
cannot  serve  men,  or  any  other  master  besides  Him 
Who  hath  His  chair  in  Heaven.  I  love  Calvin  very 
well ;    and  I  must  tell  you,    I   cannot  hate  Arminius. 


136  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER. 

And  for  my  part,  I  am  verily  persuaded  that  these  two 
are  now  where  they  agree  well,  in  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  ;  whilst  some  of  their  passionate  discij)les  are 
so  eagerly  brawling  here  on  earth.  But  because  you  are 
my  friend,  I  will  yet  farther  reveal  myself  unto  you.  I 
have  laboured  long  and  diligently  in  these  controversies, 
and  I  will  tell  you  with  what  mind  and  method,  and 
with  what  success. 

"  For  some  years  in  my  youth,  when  I  was  most  igno- 
rant, I  was  most  confident  :  before  I  knew  the  true  state, 
or  any  grounds  of  those  questions,  I  could  peremptorily 
resolve  them  all.  And  upon  every  occasion,  in  the  very 
jjulpit,  I  was  girding  and  railing  upon  these  new  heretics, 
the  Arminians,  and  I  could  not  find  words  enough  to 
decipher  the  folly  and  absurdity  of  their  doctrine ; 
especially  1  abhorred  them  as  venomous  enemies  of 
the  grace  of  God,  whereof  I  ever  was,  and  ever  will 
be  most  jealous  and  tender,  as  I  am  most  obliged, 
holding  all  I  am,  or  have,  or  hope  for  by  that  glorious 
grace.  Yet  all  this  while,  I  took  all  this  that  I  talked 
upon  trust,  and  knew  not  what  they  (the  Arminians) 
said  or  thought,  but  by  relation  from  others,  and  from 
their  enemies.  And  because  my  conscience  in  secret 
would  often  tell  me,  that  railing  would  not  carry  it  in 
matters  of  religion,  without  reason  and  divine  authority ; 
that  1  might  now  solidly  maintain  God  s  truth,  as  it  be- 
comes a  minister,  out  of  God's  word,  and  clearly  vindi- 
cate it  from  wicked  exceptions  ;  and  that  I  might  not 
only  revile  and  scratch  the  adversary,  but  beat,  and 
wound  him,  and  fight  it  out,  fortibiis  armis,  non  solum 
fulgentibiis,  I  betook  myself  seriously  and  earnestly  to 
peruse  the  w^ritings  of  both  parties ;  and  to  observe  and 
balance  the  Scriptures  produced  for  both  parties.  But 
my  aim  in  this  inquiry  was  not  to  inform  myself  whether 
1  held  the  truth,  (for  therein  I  was  extremely  confident, 
presuming  it  was  with  US,  and  reading  the  opposers  with 
prejudice  and  detestation,)  but  the  better  to  fortify  our 
tenets  against  their  cavils  and  subtilties. 


POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER.  137 

**  In  the  meanwhile,  knowing  that  all  light  and 
illumination  in  divine  mysteries,  descends  from  above 
from  the  Father  and  Fountain  of  all  light,  without  Whose 
influence  and  instruction  all  our  studies  are  most  vain 
and  frivolous ;  I  resolved  constantly  and  daily  to  solicit 
my  gracious  God,  with  most  ardent  supplications,  as  I 
shall  still  continue,  that  He  would  be  pleased  to  keep 
His  poor  servant  in  His  true  faith  and  fear ;  that  He 
would  preserve  me  from  all  false  and  dangerous  errors, 
how  specious  or  plausible  soever;  that  He  would  fill  my 
heart  with  true  holiness  and  humility ;  empty  it  of  all 
pride,  vain-glory,  curiosity,  ambition,  and  all  other  carnal 
conceits  and  affections,  which  usually  blind  and  pervert 
the  judgment;  that  he  would  give  me  the  grace  to 
renounce  and  deny  my  foolish  reason  in  those  holy 
studies,  and  teach  me  absolutely  to  captive  my  thoughts 
to  the  obedience  of  His  Heavenly  word  ;  finally,  that  he 
would  not  permit  me  to  speak  or  think  any  thing,  but 
what  were  consonant  to  His  Scriptures,  honourable  and 
glorious  to  His  majesty. 

"  I  dare  never  look  upon  my  books,  till  I  have  first 
looked  up  to  Heaven  with  these  prayers.  Thus  I  begin, 
thus  I  continue,  and  thus  conclude  my  studies.  In  my 
search,  my  first  and  last  resolution  was,  and  is,  to  believe 
only  what  the  Lord  tells  me  in  His  book  :  and,  because 
all  men  are  liars,  and  the  most  of  men  factious,  to 
mark  not  what  they  say,  but  what  they  prove.  Though 
I  must  confess,  T  much  favoured  my  own  side,  and 
read  what  was  written  against  it  with  exceeding  indig- 
nation;  especially  when  I  was  pinched,  and  found 
many  objections  to  which  I  could  find  no  answers. 
Yet  in  spite  of  my  judgment,  my  conscience  stood  as  it 
could ;  and  still  multiplying  my  prayers,  and  recurring 
to  my  oracle,  I  repelled  such  thoughts  as  temptations. — 
Well ;  in  this  perplexity  I  went  on  ;  and  first  observed 
the  judgments  of  the  age  since  the  Reformation.  And 
here  I  found,  in  the  very  Harmony  of  the  Confessions, 
N    3 


J  38  POTTER,  CHRISTOPHER. 

some  little  discord  in  these  opinions,  but  generally,  and 
the  most  part  of  our  reformed  Churches  favouring  the 
Remonstrants  ;  and  among  particular  writers,  many  here 
differing  in  judgments,  though  nearly  linked  in  affection, 
and  all  of  them  eminent  for  learning  and  piety  ;  and 
being  all  busied  against  the  common  adversary,  the 
Church  of  Rome,  these  little  differences  amongst  them- 
selves were  wisely  neglected  and  concealed.  At  length, 
some  of  our  ow^n  gave  occasion,  I  fear,  to  these  intestine 
and  woeful  wars,  letting  fall  some  speeches  very  scandal- 
ous, and  which  cannot  be  maintained.  This  first  put 
the  Lutheran  Churches  in  a  fresh  alarm  against  us,  and 
imbittered  their  hatred :  and  now,  that  which  was  but  a 
question,  is  made  a  quarrel ;  that  which  before  was  fairly 
and  sweetly  debated  between  private  doctors,  is  now  be- 
come an  appeal  to  contention  between  whole  reformed 
Churches,  they  in  one  army,  we  in  the  other.  But  still 
the  most  wise  and  holy  in  both  parties  desired  a  peace, 
and  ceased  not  to  cry  with  tears.  Sirs,  ye  are  brethren, 
why  do  ye  strive  ?  and  with  all  their  power  laboured  that 
both  the  armies  might  be  joined  under  the  Prince  of 
Peace. 

"  But  whilst  these  laboured  for  j)eace,  there  never 
wanted  some  eager  spirits,  that  made  all  ready  for  war ; 
and  whose  nails  were  still  itching  till  they  were  in  the 
wounds  of  the  Church  ;  for  they  could  not  believe  they 
had  any  zeal,  unless  they  were  furious  ;  nor  any  faith, 
unless  they  wanted  all  charity.  And  by  the  wicked 
diligence  of  these  Boutefem,  that  small  spark,  wdiich  at 
first  a  little  moderation  might  have  quenched,  hath  now 
set  us  all  in  a  woeful  fire,  worthy  to  be  lamented  with 
tears  of  blood. 

"  But  now  you  long  to  hear,  what  is  the  issue  of  all 
my  study  and  inquiry ;  what  my  resolution.  Why,  you 
may  easily  conjecture.  Finding  upon  this  serious  search, 
that  all  doubts  are  not  clearly  decided  by  Scripture ;  that 
in  the  ancient  Church,   after  the  age  of  St.  Augustine, 


POTTER,   CHRISTOPHER.  139 

who  was  presently  contradicted  by  many  Catholics,  as 
you  may  see  in  the  epistles  of  Prosper  and  Fulgentius  to 
him  upon  that  occasion,  they  have  ever  been  friendly 
debated,  and  never  determined  in  any  council  ;  that  in 
our  age,  whole  Churches  are  here  divided,  either  from  one 
another,  as  the  Lutherans  from  us  ;  or  amongst  them- 
selves, as  the  Romanists,  amongst  whom  the  Dominican 
family  is  w^iolly  for  the  contra-remonstrants;  that  in  all 
these  several  Churches,  some  particular  doctors  vary  in 
these  opinions ;  out  of  all  this  I  collect,  for  my  part, 
that  these  points  are  no  necessary  Catholic  verities,  not 
essential  to  the  faith,  but  merely  matters  of  opinion, 
problematical,  of  inferior  moment,  wherein  a  man  may 
err,  or  be  ignorant  without  danger  to  his  soul ;  yet  so 
still,  that  the  glory  of  God's  justice,  mercy,  truth, 
sincerity,  and  divine  grace  be  not  any  ways  blemished, 
nor  any  good  ascribed  to  man's  corrupt  will,  or  any  evil 
to  God's  decree  of  Providence ;  wherein  I  can  assure 
3^ou  I  do  not  depart  from  my  ancient  judgment,  but  do 
well  remember  what  I  affirmed  in  my  questions  at  the 
act,  and  have  confirmed  it,  I  suppose,  in  my  sermon. 
So  you  see,  I  am  still  where  I  was.  If  I  can  clearly 
discover  any  error  or  corruption  in  myself,  or  any  other, 
I  should  hate  it  with  all  my  might :  but  pity,  support, 
and  love  all  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  though  they  err  in 
doubtful  points  ;  but  never  break  charity,  unless  with 
him  that  obstinately  errs  in  fundamentals,  or  is  wilfully 
factious.  And  with  this  moderation  I  dare  with  confi- 
dence and  comfort  enough  appear  before  my  Lord  at  the 
last  day,  when  I  fear  what  will  become  of  him  that  loves 
not  his  brother,  that  divine  precept  of  love  being  so  often 
ingeminated ;  why  may  I  not,  when  the  Lord  hath 
assured  me  by  His  Beati  Pacifici?  You  tell  me  of  a  Dean 
that  should  say,  Maledicti  Pacijici ;  but  you  and  he  shall 
give  me  leave  in  this  contradiction,  rather  to  believe  my 
Saviour." 

In  1640,  he  was  made  vice-chancellor  of  the  University 


140  POTTER,  FRANCIS. 

of  Oxford,  in  the  execution  of  which  office  he  met  with 
some  trouble  from  the  members  of  the  long  parliament. 
Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars  he  sent  all  his 
plate  to  the  king,  and  declared  that  he  would  rather, 
like  Diogenes,  drink  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  than 
that  his  majesty  should  want ;  and  he  afterwards  suffered 
much  for  the  royal  cause.  In  January,  1646,  he  was 
nominated  to  the  Deanery  of  Durham,  but  was  prevented 
from  being  installed  by  his  death,  which  happened  at  his 
college  on  the  3rd  of  March  following.  He  translated 
into  English : — Father  Paul's  History  of  the  Quarrels 
of  Pope  Paul  V.  with  the  State  of  Venice,  London,  1626, 
4to ;  and  left  several  MSS.  prepared  for  the  press,  one 
of  which,  entitled,  A  Survey  of  the  Platform  of  Predes- 
tination, falling  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  William  Twisse, 
of  Newbury,  was  answered  by  him. — Wood.  Fuller.  Life 
of  Chillingworth.    Wordsivorth. 


POTTER,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Potter  was  born  at  Meyne,  in  Wiltshire,  in 
1594,  and  was  educated  at  the  King's  School,  Worcester, 
and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  In  1637,  he 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  Rectory  of  Kilmington. 

In  1642,  he  published  at  Oxford,  in  4to,  a  Treatise 
entitled  "  An  Interpretation  of  the  number  666, 
Wherein  not  only  the  manner  how  this  number  ought 
to  be  interpreted  is  clearly  proved  and  demonstrated  ; 
but  it  is  also  shewed,  that  this  number  is  an  exquisite 
and  perfect  character,  truly,  exactly,  and  essentially 
describing  that  state  of  government,  to  which  all  other 
notes  of  Antichrist  do  agree.  With  all  known  objec- 
tions solidly  and  fully  answered,  that  can  be  materially 
made  against  it."  Prefixed  to  it  is  the  following  opinion 
of  the  learned  Joseph  Mede :  "  This  discourse  or  tract 
of  the  number  of  the  beast  is  the  happiest  that  ever 


POTTER,  FRANCIS.  141 

yet  came  iuto  the  world,  and  such  as  cannot  be  read. 
(save  of  those  that  perhaps  will  not  believe  it)  without 
much  admiration.  The  ground  hath  been  harped  on 
before,  namely,  that  that  number  was  to  be  explicated 
by  some  avTi(TToi)(ta  to  the  number  of  the  Virgin-com- 
pany and  new  Hierusalem,  which  type  the  true  and 
Apostolical  Church,  whose  number  is  always  derived 
from  XII.  But  never  did  any  work  this  principal  to 
such  a  wonderfull  discovery,  as  this  author  hath  done, 
namely,  to  make  this  number  not  only  to  shew  the 
manner  and  property  of  that  state,  which  was  to  be 
that  beast,  but  to  design  the  city  wherein  he  should 
reign;  the  figure  and  compass  thereof;  the  number 
of  gates,  cardinal  titles  or  churches,  St.  Peter's  altar, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  more  the  like.  I  read  the 
book  at  first  with  as  much  prejudice  against  the  nu- 
merical speculation  as  might  be,  and  almost  against 
my  will,  having  met  with  so  much  vanitie  formerly 
in  that  kind.  But  by  the  time  I  had  done,  it  left  me 
possessed  with  as  much  admiration,  as  I  came  to  it  with 
prejudice." 

This  treatise  was  afterwards  translated  into  French, 
Dutch,  and  Latin,  The  Latin  version  was  made  by 
several  hands.  One  edition  was  all  or  most  translated 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Gilbert,  of  Edmund  Hall,  in  Oxford, 
and  printed  at  Amsterdam,  1677,  in  8vo ;  part  of  the 
Latin  translation  is  inserted  in  the  second  part  of  the 
fourth  volume  of  Poole's  "  Synopsis  Criticorum."  Our 
authors  treatise  was  attacked  by  Mr.  Lambert  More- 
house, minister  of  Prestwood,  near  Kilmington,  who  asserts 
that  25  is  not  the  true,  but  propinque  root  of  666.  Mr. 
Potter  wrote  a  Reply  to  him.  Mr.  Morehouse  gave  a 
copy  of  this  dispute  to  Dr.  Seth  Ward,  Bishop  of  Sarum, 
in  1668.  Our  author  while  he  was  very  young,  had 
a  good  talent  at  drawing  and  painting,  and  the  founder's 
picture  in  the  Hall  of  Trinity  College  is  of  his  copying. 
He  had   likewise    an    excellent    genius   for    mechanics, 


Ua  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  made  several  inventions  for  raising  water,  and. 
water-engines  :  which  being  communicated  to  the  Royal 
Society,  about  the  time  of  its  first  establishment,  were 
highly  approved  of,  and  he  was  admitted  a  member 
of  that  society.  Mr.  Wood  likewise  observes,  that 
about  1640,  "he  entertained  the  notion  of  curing 
diseases  by  transfusion  of  blood  out  of  one  man  into 
another ;  the  hint  whereof  came  into  his  head  from 
Ovid's  story  of  Medea  and  Jason ;  which  matter  he 
communicating  to  the  Royal  Society  about  the  time 
of  its  first  erection,  it  was  entered  into  their  books. 
But  this  way  of  transfusion  having  (as  it  is  said)  been 
mentioned  long  before  by  Andr.  Libavius,  our  author 
Potter  (who  I  dare  say  never  saw  that  writer)  is  not 
to  be  the  first  inventor  of  that  notion,  nor  Dr.  Richard 
Lewen,  but  rather  an  advancer."  He  became  blind 
before  his  death,  and  died  at  Kilmington,  about  April, 
1678,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  the  church 
there. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


POTTER,    JOHN. 

John  PottiIr  was  born  at  Wakefield,  where  his  father 
was  a  linen-draper,  in  1674.  Having  been  educated  at 
the  Wakefield  Grammar  School,  he  proceeded  to  Uni- 
versity College,  Oxford,  where,  after  taking  his  bachelor's 
degree,  he  was  employed  by  the  master  of  his  college. 
Dr.  Charlett,  to  compile  a  work  for  the  use  of  his 
fellow-students,  entitled,  Variantes  Lectiones  et  Notae 
ad  Plutarchi  Librum  de  audiendis  Poetis,  item  Variantes 
Lectiones,  &c.  ad  Basilii  Magni  orationem  ad  juvenes, 
quomodo  cum  fructu  legere  possint  Groecorum  Libros, 
8vo.  In  1694,  he  was  chosen  fellow  of  Lincoln  College, 
and  proceeding  M.A.  in  October  in  the  same  year,  he 
took  pupils,  and  went  into  orders.  In  1697,  he  pub- 
lished his  beautiful  edition  of  Lycophron's  Alexandria, 


POTTER,  JOHN.  143 

fol. ;  and  the  first  volume  of  his  Archseologia  Greeca, 
or  Antiquities  of  Greece ;  in  the  following  year  he  pub- 
lished the  second  volume.  This  valuable  work  was 
incorporated  in  Gronovius's  Thesaurus. 

It  is  almost  incredible  that  such  works  as  these  could 
have  been  produced  by  a  young  man  scarcely  past  his 
twenty-third  year,  In  1704,  he  commenced  B.D. ;  and 
being  about  the  same  time  appointed  chaplain  to  Arch- 
bishop Tenison,  he  removed  to  Lambeth.  The  arch- 
bishop also  gave  him  the  living  of  Great  Mongeham,  in 
Kent,  and  subsequently  other  preferments  in  Bucking- 
hamshire and  Oxfordshire.  He  proceeded  D.D.,  in  April, 
1706,  and  soon  after  became  chaplain  in  ordinary  to 
Queen  Anne.  In  1707,  he  published  his  Discourse  of 
Church  Government,  8vo.  In  this  his  great  work  he 
asserts  the  constitution,  rights,  and  government,  of  the 
Christian  Church,  chiefly  as  described  by  the  fathers  of 
the  three  first  centuries  against  Erastian  principles  ;  his 
design  being  to  vindicate  the  Church  of  England  from 
the  charge  of  those  principles.  In  this  view,  among 
other  ecclesiastical  powers  distinct  from  the  state,  he 
maintains  the  doctrine  of  our  Church,  concerning  the 
distinction  of  the  three  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  superiority  of 
the  episcopal  order  above  that  of  presbyters,  which  he 
endeavours  to  prove  was  settled  by  divine  institution; 
that  this  distinction  was  also  in  fact  constantly  kept 
up  to  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  in  the  next  age 
after  that,  the  same  distinction,  he  observes,  was  con- 
stantly reckoned  to  be  of  divine  institution,  and  derived 
from  the  Apostles  down  to  those  times.  In  pursuing 
this  argument  he  considers  the  objection,  that  had  been 
raised  against  it  from  St.  Jerome's  conjecture  about  the 
original  of  Episcopacy,  of  which  he  gives  us  the  following 
account  from  the  writings  of  that  father  : — "  Having 
observed,  says  he,  that  the  names  of  Bishop  and  Pres- 
byter are  used  promiscuously  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that 


144  POTTER,  JOHN. 

the  Apostles  call  themselves  preshyters,  he  concludes, 
that  at  first  there  was  no  distinction  between  their 
offices,  but  that  apostle,  bishop,  and  presbyter,  were 
only  different  names  of  the  same  thing,  and  that  the 
Church  was  then  generally  governed  by  a  colle.c^e  of 
presbyters,  equal  in  rank  and  dignity  to  one  another. 
Afterwards  divisions  being  occasioned  by  this  parity 
among  presbyters,  when  every  presbyter  began  to  claim 
as  his  own  particular  subjects,  those  whom  he  had  bap- 
tized ;  and  it  was  said  by  the  people,  I  am  of  Paul,  I  of 
Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas  ;  to  remedy  this  evil,  it  was 
decreed  all  the  world  over,  that  one  of  the  presbyters  in 
every  Church  should  be  set  over  the  rest,  and  peculiarly 
called  bishop,  and  that  the  chief  care  of  the  Church 
should  be  committed  to  him.  Our  author  thinks  it 
strange,  that  such  a  conjecture  as  this  should  prejudice 
any  considering  man  against  the  divine  institution  of 
episcopacy  ;  and  observes,  that  in  this  account  St.  Jerome 
founds  the  right  of  episcopal  primacy  over  presbyters,  on 
the  synonymous  use  of  the  names  of  apostles,  bishops, 
and  presbyters,  which  was  observed  by  St.  Chrysostom, 
Theodoret,  and  other  ancient  fathers,  who  drew  no  such 
inference  from  it,  but  constantly  affirmed,  that'  there  was 
a  disparity  of  order  among  themx,  notwithstanding  their 
names  were  used  promiscuously  ;  and  I  hope,  continues 
the  Doctor,  it  has  been  fully  made  out  in  this  and  the 
last  chapter,  that  this  was  no  good  foundation  for  that 
opinion.  But  it  is  not  strange  that  having  raised  pres- 
byters to  a  parity  with  the  apostles,  contrary  to  the  most 
plain  testimony  of  the  Scriptures,  he  should  equal  them 
with  bishops,  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  ancient  fathers. 
Thus  the  premises  on  which  the  opinion  is  founded 
being  inconclusive,  there  is  no  reason  to  regard  what  he 
says  of  the  decree  passed  in  all  Churches  for  the  raising 
of  one  presbyter  above  the  rest,  which  he  does  not  pre- 
tend to  support  by  any  testimony,  but  only  conjectures 
that  such  a  decree  must  have  passed,  because    he   had 


POTTER,  JOHN.  145 

before  conjectured,  that  apostles,  bishops,  and  presbyters, 
were  all  equal  at  first :  but  when  or  by  what  authority 
was  this  decree  enacted  ?  If  in  the  second  century,  as 
some  would  persuade  us,  for  no  better  reason  than  that 
they  are  unwilling  to  derive  episcopacy  from  the  apostles  ; 
it  is  strange  that  no  presbyter  in  the  world  should  take 
it  ill,  that  one  of  his  fellow-presbyters  should  be  ad- 
vanced above  him,  or  think  it  his  duty  to  oppose  this 
new  and  unscriptural  model,  but  that  so  great  a  change 
should  be  introduced  into  all  parts  of  the  world,  at  a 
time  when  the  Church  flourished  with  men  of  great 
parts  and  learning,  and  yet  not  the  least  mention  is 
made  of  it  in  any  of  their  writings  ;  but  on  the  con- 
trary, both  they  and  the  Christian  writers  in  the  next 
age  after  them,  should  constantly  speak  of  the  primacy 
of  bishops  over  presbyters  as  no  late  invention,  but  of 
ancient  right,  and  derived  from  the  apostles  themselves. 
We  may  as  well  affirm,  contrary  to  the  accounts  of  all 
historians,  that  all  nations  in  the  world  were  first  re- 
publics, and  afterwards,  on  a  certain  time,  upon  the 
consideration  of  their  being  obnoxious  to  factions,  by 
general  consent  became  monarchies.  But  it  is  needless 
to  raise  more  objections  against  this  notion,  since  Jerome 
himself  plainly  refers  the  making  of  this  decree  to  the 
apostles.  He  not  only  assigns  as  the  occasion  of  it,  the 
adherence  of  some  to  Paul,  of  others  to  Apollos,  and  of 
others  to  Peter,  which  is  reproved  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  ;  but  in  his  before  mentioned  Epistle 
to  Evagrias,  he  expressly  calls  the  distinction  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  an  apostolical  tradition,  and  taken 
by  the  apostles  from  the  Old  Testament,  where  Aaron, 
his  sons,  the  priests,  and  the  Levites,  correspond  to  the 
three  orders  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  in  his  cata- 
logue of  ecclesiastical  writers,  he  affirms,  that  presently 
after  our  Lord's  Ascension,  James  was  ordained  Bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  by  the  apostles,  that  Timothy  was  made 
Bishop  of  Ephesus,  and    Titus  of   Crete,  by  St.  Paul, 

VOL.    VITI.  o 


146  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  by  St.  John,  and  he 
mentions  several  other  bishops,  who  lived  in  the  next 
age  after  the  apostles.  So  that,  even  in  St.  Jerome's 
opinion,  the  primacy  of  bishops  over  presbyters  was 
an  apostolical  institution.  But  whatever  was  St.  Jerome's 
sense  of  this  matter,  since  it  has  appeared  to  be  ill 
grounded,  and  contrary  both  to  the  universal  consent  of 
primitive  antiquity,  and  of  the  Scriptures,  we  need  not 
have  the  least  concern  about  it.  The  truth  is  this  ;  some 
deacons,  who  enjoyed  wealthier  places  in  the  Church  than 
many  presbyters,  claimed  several  privileges  superior  to 
them,  and  were  unwilling  to  be  admitted  into  that  order; 
which  irregularity  was  so  highly  resented  by  St.  Jerome, 
who  was  a  man  of  passion,  and  only  a  presbyter,  that  to 
raise  his  own  order  beyond  the  competition  of  deacons, 
he  endeavoured  to  make  it  equal  by  its  original  institu- 
tion with  bishops  and  apostles ;  as  it  is  common  even 
for  the  best  of  men,  in  the  heat  of  disputation,  to  run 
into  one  extreme  by  avoiding  another.  Yet  even  at  the 
same  time  he  owns  in  the  forementioned  epistle  to 
Evagrias,  that  none  but  bishops  had  authority  to  ordain 
ministers,  and  in  many  other  places,  he  approves  the 
subordination  of  presbyters  to  bishops  ;  and  never  once 
allows  to  mere  presbyters  the  power  of  ordaining,  or 
seems  inclined  to  introduce  a  parity  of  ministers  into 
the  Church."  We  give  at  length  this  instance  of  our 
author's  judgment  in  using  the  authority  of  the  fa- 
thers, because  his  true  character  as  a  Churchman 
and  a  divine,  may  in  a  great  measure  be  collected 
from  it;  in  reality,  we  have  therein  a  fair  comment 
explaining  his  opinion  in  this  point,  as  declared  in 
the  preface.  "That  these  (the  fathers)  especially  of  the 
three  first  centuries,  are  the  best  interpreters  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  may  safely  be  relied  on  as  giving  us  its 
genuine  sense.  And,  continues  he,  if  any  of  them 
should  be  thought  to  speak  sometimes  with  less  caution, 
or  to  carry  their  expression  higher  than  might  have  been 


t>OTTER,  JOHN.  147 

wished,  as  the  best  men  in  the  heat  of  disputation,  or 
through  too  much  zeal  often  do,  all  candid  and  impartial 
readers,  will  easily  be  persuaded  to  make  just  allowance 
for  it," 

In  the  following  year,  he  succeeded  Dr.  Jane,  as 
regius  professor  of  divinity,  and  canon  of  Christ  Church  ; 
whereupon  he  returned  to  Oxford.  This  promotion  he 
owed  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  through  whose  influ- 
ence he  was  in  1715,  advanced  to  the  see  of  Oxford,  still 
retaining  the  divinity  chair.  Just  before  he  was  made 
bishop,  he  published  his  splendid  and  elaborate  edition 
of  the  works  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  *2  vols.  fol.  Gr. 
and  Lat.  In  this  he  has  given  a  new  version  of  the  Cohor- 
tatious.  When  Dr,  Hoadley,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  made 
public  those  opinions  which  brought  about  him  such 
a  storm  of  controversy  from  his  clerical  brethren,  Dr. 
Potter  was  one  of  the  combatants,  having,  in  a  charge 
to  his  clergy,  thought  proper  to  warn  them  against  some 
of  that  prelate's  opinions  respecting  religious  sincerity. 
Hoadley  answered,  and  Potter  rejoined. 

In  vindicating  himself,  Bishop  Potter  says,  "  I  must 
not  forget  under  this  head,  that  I  am  again  charged 
not  only  with  favouring  Popery,  but  with  being  a  Papist 
in  disguise,  with  '  acknowledging  the  Protestant  prin- 
ciples for  decency's  sake,  but  stedfastly  adhering  to  the 
Popish'  (p.  275),  and  all  this,  as  it  seems,  for  having 
referred  you  to  the  practice  and  writers  of  the  primi- 
tive times,  and  of  the  next  ages  after  the  apostles ; 
whereby  I  am  represented  to  understand  the  reign  of 
Constantino,  which  happened,  as  he  saith  (pp.  270 — 
274),  almost  three  hundred  years  after.  Now  I  am 
not  in  the  least  apprehensive  of  my  being  suspected 
as  a  favourer  of  Popery  by  any  man,  who  knows  the 
true  meaning  of  Popery;  but  sure  it  is  such  a  compli- 
ment to  the  Popish  religion,  as  no  Protestant  would 
have  made,  who  understands  his  own  principles,  to 
date  its  rise  from  the  time  of  Constautine;    the  claim 


148  POTTER,  JOHN. 

of  infallibility,  and  of  the  papal  supremacy,  as  now 
exercised,  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  invoca- 
tion of  saints,  image  worship,  prayers  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  forbidding  laymen  to  read  the  Scriptures,  to 
say  nothing  of  other  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  having  never  been  heard  of  during  the  reign 
of  this  great  emperor,  or  for  a  long  time  after ;  as  a 
very  little  insight  into  the  Popish  Controversies,  or 
Ecclesiastical  Historians,  would  have  informed  this 
writer.  It  would  have  been  much  more  to  his  pur- 
pose, and  equally  consistent  with  truth  and  justice, 
to  have  told  his  readers  that,  by  the  next  age  after 
the  apostles,  I  meant  the  times  immediately  preceding 
the  Reformation  :  but  then  one  opportunity  would  have 
been  lost  of  declaiming  against  the  times  wherein  the 
Nicene  Creed  was  composed,  and  Arianism  condemned. 
As  to  the  primitive  writers,  I  am  not  ashamed,  or 
afraid  to  repeat,  that  the  best  method  of  interpreting 
Scripture  seems  to  me  to  be  the  having  recourse  to 
the  writers  who  lived  nearest  the  time  wherein  the 
Scriptures  were  first  published,  that  is,  to  the  next 
ages  after  the  apostles ;  and  that  a  diligent  inquiry 
into  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  same 
ages,  would  be  the  most  effectual  way,  next  after  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  to  prevent  inno- 
vations in  doctrine;  and,  lastly,  that  this  hath  been 
practised  with  great  success  by  some  of  our  best  advo- 
cates for  the  Protestant  cause,  as  Bishop  Jewel,  for 
example,  Archbishop  Laud,  Archbishop  Ussher,  Bishop 
Cosins,  Bishop  Stillingfleet,  Dr.  Barrow,  Bishop  Bull, 
with  many  others  at  home  and  abroad.  To  which  it 
will  be  replied,  that  '  our  best  writers,  at  least,  in  their 
controversies  with  the  Papists,  are  so  far  from  appealing 
to  the  judgment  of  the  Church  in  the  next  centuries 
after  the  apostles,  in  any  such  sense  as  the  bishop  is 
arguing  for  against  his  adversaries;  that  the  very  best 
of  them,   Mr.   Chillingworth,    has    declared  upon  ths 


POTTER,  JOHN.  U9 

most  mature  consideration,  how  uncertain  generally, 
how  self-contradictory  sometimes,  how  insufficient  always, 
he  esteemed  this  judgment  to  be.  He  had  seen  fathers 
against  fathers,  councils  against  councils,  the  consent 
of  one  age  against  the  consent  of  another ;  the  same 
fathers  contradicting  themselves,  and  the  like,  and  he 
found  no  rest  but  in  the  Protestant  Rule  of  Faith. 
He  was  willing  to  yield  to  every  thing  as  truth,  Qiiod 
semper,  uhiqiie  et  ah  omnibus;  because  he  well  judged 
that  nothing  could  be  conceived  to  be  embraced  as 
truth  at  the  very  beginning,  and  so  continue  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times,  but  what  was  delivered  at  the  begin- 
ning. But  he  saw,  with  respect  to  some  controverted 
points,  how  early  the  difference  of  sentiment  was.' 
(pp.  265,  266.)  In  answer  to  this,  I  shall  not  take 
upon  me  to  determine  what  rank  Mr.  Chillingworth 
ought  to  bear  among  the  Protestant  writers ;  it  being 
sufficient  for  my  purpose,  that  many  others,  and  those 
of  chief  note  for  learning  and  judgment,  in  their  con- 
troversies with  the  Papists  and  others,  have  appealed, 
and  in  this  manner  I  have  recommended,  to  the  primi- 
tive writers,  as  every  one  may  soon  learn  who  will 
take  the  pains  to  look  into  their  books.  In  the  next 
place,  it  appears  from  this  very  passage  of  Mr.  Chil- 
lingworth, as  here  represented,  that  this  design  was 
to  prevent  appealing  to  fathers  and  councils  as  a  rule 
of  faith  ;  agreeably  whereunto  I  have  all  along  declared, 
that,  in  my  opinion,  the  Scripture  is  the  only  Rule 
of  Faith,  and  have  no  farther  recommended  the  study 
of  the  primitive  writers,  than  as  the  best  method  of 
discovering  the  true  sense  of  Scripture.  In  the  third 
place,  here  is  nothing  expressly  said  by  Mr.  Chilling- 
worth  of  the  most  primitive  writers  or  councils,  or 
of  any  who  lived  in  the  next  ages  after  the  Apostles  ; 
but  he  may  very  well  be  understood,  notwithstanding 
any  thing  here  produced,  of  those  latter  ages,  wherein 
both  fathers  and  councils  degenerated  from  the  faitii 
0  a 


150  POTTER,  JOHN. 

and  doctrine  of  those  who  went  before  them ;  which 
is  the  more  likely,  because  mention  here  follows  of 
the  Article  which  divided  the  Greeks  from  the  Roman 
communion ;  this  having  not  been  openly  disputed 
before  the  seventh  century.  Fourthly,  he  is  intro- 
duced as  speaking  in  express  terms  of  controverted 
points,  but  saying  nothing  of  any  principal  point  of 
faith,  nothing  of  any  Article  which  was  originally  in 
the  Nicene  Creed.  On  the  contrary  it  may  be  ob- 
served, in  the  last  place,  that  he  plainly  speaks  of 
doctrines  received  by  the  Church  in  all  places  and  at 
all  times,  even  from  the  very  beginning,  which  for  that 
very  reason,  he  presumed  not  to  reject.  Now  it  cannot 
possibly  be  known  what  these  are,  without  having 
recourse  to  the  writers  of  the  primitive  ages.  So  that, 
upon  the  whole,  the  method  I  have  recommended  is 
so  far  from  being  contradicted,  that  it  is  rather  enforced 
by  what  this  writer  hath  cited  from  Mr.  Chillingworth. 
—p.  358." 

Some  time  after  this,  he  became,  curiously  enough, 
a  favourite  with  Queen  Caroline,  then  Princess  of 
Wales ;  and,  upon  the  accession  of  George  IT.,  preached 
the  coronation  sermon,  Oct.  11th,  1727,  which  was 
afterwards  printed  by  his  majesty's  express  commands, 
and  is  inserted  among  the  bishop's  theological  works. 
It  was  generally  supposed  that  the  chief  direction  of 
public  affairs,  with  regard  to  the  Church,  was  designed 
to  be  committed  to  his  care ;  but  as  he  saw  that  this 
must  involve  him  in  the  politics  of  the  times,  he  de- 
clined the  proposal,  and  returned  to  his  bishopric, 
until  the  death  of  Dr.  Wake,  in  January,  1737,  when 
he  was  appointed  his  successor  in  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury.  This  high  office  he  filled  during  the 
space  of  ten  years  with  great  reputation,  and  towards 
the  close  of  that  period  fell  into  a  lingering  disorder, 
which  put  a  period  to  his  life  October  10th,  1747,  in 
the  seventy-fourth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  buried  at 
Croydon. 


POWELL.  151 

The  archbishop's  works  were  published  in  1753,  in 
3  vols.  8vo,  under  the  title  of  "  Theological  Works  of 
Dr.  John  Potter,  &c.,  containing  his  Sermons,  Charges, 
Discourse  of  Church-government,  and  Divinity  Lec- 
tures." He  had  himself  prepared  these  for  the  press ; 
his  divinity  lectures  form  a  continued  treatise  on  the 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  Some 
letters  of  his,  relative  to  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  &c.,  are 
printed  in  Atterbury's  Correspondence. — Potters  Works. 
Wood.     Nichol.     Biog.  Brit. 


POUGET,    FEANCIS    AIME. 

Fkancis  Aime  Pouget  was  born  at  Montpellier,  in  1666, 
was  educated  at  Paris,  and  became  Vicar  of  St.  Koch,  in 
that  city.  In  1696,  he  entered  the  Congregation  of  the 
Priests  of  the  Oratory.  He  died  in  1723.  His  chief 
work  is  entitled,  Instructions  in  the  Form  of  a  Cate- 
chism drawn  up  by  order  of  M.  Joachim  Colbut,  Bishop 
of  Montpellier.  It  is  said  to  be  in  high  repute  among 
the  Papists. — Moreri. 


POWELL,    WILLIAM    SAMUEL. 

William  Samuel  Powell  was  born  at  Colchester,  in 
1717,  and  was  admitted  at  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  the  year  1734,  of  which  college  he  became 
a  fellow  in  1740.  In  1741,  he  entered  into  the  family  of 
Lord  Viscount  Townshend,  as  private  tutor  to  his  second 
son  Charles,  who  was  afterwards  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer. Towards  the  end  of  the  same  year  he  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest  by  Dr.  Gooch,  then  Bishop 
of  Norwich ;  and  was  instituted  by  him  to  the  Rectory 
of  Colkirk,  in  Norfolk,  on  Lord  Townshend's  presenta- 
tion.    He  returned  to  his  college  the  year  after;  took 


153  POWELL. 

the  degree  of  A.M. ;  and  began  to  read  lectures,  as 
assistant  to  Mr.  Wrigley  and  Mr.  Tunstall :  but  in  1744, 
he  became  principal  tutor  himself,  and  engaged  his 
eminent  friend,  Dr.  Thomas  Balguj,  as  an  assistant  lec- 
turer. Mr.  Powell  is  considered  to  have  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  tutorial  office,  in  a  very  able  and  satisfac- 
tory manner,  as  regards  both  the  morals  and  the  studies 
of  the  young  men  committed  to  his  care.  The  lectures, 
which  he  drew  up  in  the  four  branches  of  natural  philo- 
sophy, continued  to  be  the  text-book  at  St.  John's  College, 
until  they  were  superseded  by  the  more  elaborate  pub- 
lications of  Dr.  Wood,  and  his  coadjutor,  Professor 
Vince. 

In  1749,  Mr.  Powell  proceeded  to  the  degree  of  B.D. ; 
and  in  1753,  he  resigned  the  Rectory  of  Colkirk,  that 
it  might  be  consolidated  with  Stibbard,  another  of  Lord 
Townshend's  livings ;  and  was  again  instituted  the  next 
day.  At  the  commencement  in  1757,  he  was  created 
doctor  of  divinity;  on  which  occasion,  he  preached  his 
celebrated  sermon,  in  defence  of  the  subscriptions  re- 
quired by  our  Church. 

*'At  this  time,"  says  the  worthy  Mr.  Cole,  "things 
were  only  brewing;"  that  is,  projects  were  set  on  foot, 
not  only  to  dissolve  the  alliance  between  Church  and 
State,  under  the  specious  pretext  that  all  disqualifi- 
cations on  account  of  religious  scruples  are  to  be 
accounted  as  pains  and  penalties ;  but  also  to  weaken 
the  allegiance  due  to  the  Church  from  its  own  ministers, 
by  representing  her  requisition  of  assent  and  subscrip- 
tion to  any  human  interpretations  of  Scripture,  as  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  Protestantism  and  of  Christian 
liberty.  Dr.  Powell,  then  a  leading  character  in  the 
university,  was  the  first  of  those  who  placed  themselves 
in  the  gap  against  those  innovations.  Subscription  to 
the  thirty-nine  articles,  was,  at  this  period,  required  from 
undergraduates,  before  they  were  admitted  to  their  first 
degree ;  a  practice,  which  had  continued  from  the  time 


POWELL.  153 

of  James  L,  and  which  began  to  be  considered,  not  only 
as  encroaching  on  the  province  and  privileges  of  litera- 
ture, but  as  tending  to  render  youth  at  that  age  either 
reckless  or  hypocritical.  A  strong  spirit  of  dissatis- 
faction with  this  demand  now  began  to  manifest  itself 
amongst  the  undergraduates  themselves ;  many  of  whom 
remonstrated  against  it,  whilst  others  refused  subscrip- 
tion altogether,  and  forfeited  the  advantages  to  which 
their  previous  residence  in  the  university  had  entitled 
them.  Thus  agitated  as  their  minds  were,  and  fomented 
as  their  disaffection  was  by  some  who  had  ulterior  objects 
in  view,  Dr.  Powell's  sermon  was  directed  principally  to 
conciliate  them,  to  remove  difficulties  out  of  their  path, 
and  secure  their  adherence  to  established  forms  and 
usages. 

In  1760,  Dr.  Powell  entered  anonymously  into  a  con- 
troversy, which  we  are  inclined  to  think  detracted  some- 
what from  his  character.  The  celebrated  Edward  Waring, 
a  very  young  man,  and  only  bachelor  of  arts,  being  at  this 
time  candidate  for  the  Lucasian  professorship,  published 
the  first  chapter  of  Miscellanea  Analytica,  in  order  that 
the  electors,  and  the  university  at  large,  might  judge  of 
the  nature  of  his  pursuits,  and  his  qualifications  for  the 
high  office  which  he  solicited.  This  publication  was 
immediately  attacked  by  some  anonymous  Observations ; 
the  author  of  which  did  not  confine  himself  to  what  he 
thought  mathematical  errors,  but  indulged  in  severe 
reflections  on  the  age,  the  inexperience,  and  the  style 
of  the  analyst.  These  animadversions,  however,  not 
only  failed  in  their  object  of  stopping  Waring's  election, 
but  produced  a  reply  from  the  new  professor,  in  which 
he  vindicated  his  own  position,  and  retorted  the  charge 
of  error  on  his  adversary ;  and  this  again  was  followed 
by  a  "  Defence  of  the  Observations  :"  the  author  of  them 
however  having  become  well  known,  Waring  sent  forth  a 
Letter  to  Dr.  Powell,  which  closed  the  controversy  ;  and 
in  which,  whilst    he    animadverted   with  considerable 


154  POWELL. 

severity  on  his  antagonist,  he  did  not  forget  his  rank 
and  station. 

The  motive  generally  ascribed  to  Dr.  Powell  for  this 
interference,  was  a  desire  to  serve  the  cause  of  his  friend 
Mr.  Ludlam,  of  St.  John's,  who  aspired  to  fill  the  vacant 
chair  of  Newton :  and  certainly  if  he  felt  himself  fully 
competent  to  decide  on  the  deep  subjects  of  Waring's 
speculations,  this  was  a  good  excuse  for  his  attempting 
it :  but  if  he  was  deficient  in  the  necessary  skill  and 
science ;  if,  as  was  the  case,  he  proved  impar  congressus 
Achillei,  and  was  defeated  in  the  contest, — candour  re- 
quired him  to  confess  his  fault,  and  make  all  due 
reparation  to  his  antagonist. 

In  1765,  he  was  elected  Master  of  his  College,  and 
was  chosen  vice-chancellor  of  the  university  in  November 
following.  In  1766,  he  obtained  the  Archdeaconry  of 
Colchester.  In  1768,  he  was  instituted  to  the  living  of 
Freshwater,  in  the  lovely  Isle  of  Wight. 

In  the  meantime  the  course  of  events  brought  Df. 
Powell  more  conspicuously  before  the  public  eye.  His 
celebrated  commencement  sermon,  having  been  much 
read,  and  much  criticised,  had  brought  out  several 
answers.  By  some,  even  of  his  own  party,  it  was  thought 
to  have  betrayed  the  cause  which  it  undertook  to  support ; 
its  principal  aim  indeed  being  to  conciliate  inexperienced 
minds  and  tender  consciences,  rather  than  to  defend  the 
practice  of  subscriptions  on  high  Church  principles,  this 
untenable  ground  was  eagerly  seized  on  by  that  faction, 
which  opposed  all  terms  of  subscription  whatever,  and 
demanded  not  only  unlimited  toleration,  but  unlimited 
license.  The  doctor,  having  asserted  that  "  young  peo- 
ple may  give  a  general  assent  to  the  articles,  on  the 
authority  of  others,  and  thus  leave  room  for  improve- 
ments in  theology;" — this  was  taken  to  imply,  that  such 
subscribers  are  left  at  liberty  to  retract  their  assent,  if, 
in  the  progress  of  their  studies,  they  should  find  what 
they  assented  to  inconsistent  with  their  subsequent  dis- 


POWELL.  155 

coveries  and  theological  acquirements.  Then  came  the 
questions  : — How  will  you  limit  the  period  of  submission 
and  of  inquiry  ? — and  will  not  many  of  maturer  years 
avail  themselves  of  this  uncertainty,  and  so  readily 
subscribe  to  articles,  which  have  been  represented  as 
"  having  rules  of  interpretation  peculiar  to  themselves," 
whilst  the  subscription  itself  has  been  stated  to  mean 
little  more  than  "  an  acknowledgment  that  the  sub- 
scriber is  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England?"  Nay, 
it  was  even  asserted,  and  that  by  a  dignitary  of  the 
Church  itself,  that  '*  this  expedient  had  no  doubt  been 
most  thankfully  accepted  by  a  great  many  subscribers 
within  the  last  ten  years ;  and  the  rather,  as  in  all  that 
time  the  Church  had  not  declared  against  it."  Hence 
it  was  argued,  that,  if  subscription  to  the  articles  was 
intended  to  be  a  test  of  faith  and  doctrine,  this  benefit 
never  could  be  obtained  from  it,  by  reason  of  the 
latitude  allowed  by  its  advocates  and  taken  by  its  oppo- 
nents :  therefore  it  would  be  the  wisest  course  to  do 
away  altogether  with  a  test,  which,  whilst  it  prohibited 
many  worthy  persons  from  entering  into  the  service  of 
the  Church,  let  in  those  that  were  less  scrupulous  and 
less  conscientious. 

These  insinuations  and  attacks  could  not  fail  to  stir 
up  many  among  the  more  sturdy  champions  of  the 
Church.  One  of  the  first  that  buckled  on  his  armour 
was  Dr.  Rutherforth,  who  skirmished  with  the  author 
of  the  Confessional,  as  it  is  observed,  '*  in  the  old 
posture  prescribed  by  the  ancient  system  of  Church 
authority."  Among  others  that  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  same  cause,  were  Dr.  Randolph,  Dr.  Halifax, 
and  Dr.  Balguy ;  though  this  latter  gentleman  appeared 
rather  late  in  the  field. 

The  principal  writers  on  the  other  side  of  the  ques- 
tion were  Archdeacon  Blackburne,  author  of  the  Con- 
fessional, Dr.  Dawson,  Dr.  Priestley,  with  the  celebrated 
Pr.  Jebb  and  his  wife. 


156  POWELL. 

Great  efforts  were  now  making,  throughout  the  king- 
dom, by  the  anti-subscription  party:  petitions  were 
multiplied  on  the  subject,  and  the  minds  of  all  ranks 
excited:  until,  at  length,  a  regular  society  was  estab- 
lished at  the  Feathers  Tavern,  in  London,  with  Arch- 
deacon Blackburne  at  its  head;  the  avowed  purpose 
of  which  was  to  get  up  a  petition  to  parliament,  for 
setting  aside  altogether  the  test  of  subscription,  and 
admitting  every  one  into  the  service  and  preferments 
of  the  Church,  who  should  acknowledge  the  truth  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament.  They  were  also  for 
abolishing  subscriptions  in  the  university ;  "  and  so 
strong  was  the  infatuation,"  says  Mr.  Cole,  "  that 
several  members  of  the  university  were  led  astray ;  and 
I  am  sorry  to  record  it,  that  one  whole  college,  both 
head  and  fellows,  subscribed  this  petition."  The  under- 
graduates themselves  were  also  stirred  up  to  refuse 
subscription,  and  to  remonstrate  with  their  superiors. 
In  June,  1769,  they  presented  a  petition  to  the  heads 
for  an  alteration  of  their  scholastic  dress,  and  it  was 
granted:  for  it  went  no  farther  than  to  change  the 
figure  of  their  caps  from  round  to  square.  It  seems 
probable,  however,  that  this  was  only  put  forth  as  a 
feeler;  for  in  January,  1772,  another  petition  was 
offered,  which  went  the  length  of  demanding  a  release 
from  subscription,  unless  (as  it  was  added  with  a  show 
of  modesty)  they  were  instructed  beforehand  in  the 
articles  which  they  were  required  to  subscribe.  But 
this  being  considered  as  subversive  of  discipline,  and 
laying  a  foundation  for  sedition,  was  rejected. 

The  master  of  St.  John's,  however,  still  persevering 
in  his  design  of  conciliation,  called  together  his  own 
students,  and  laid  before  them  the  state  of  the  case 
relating  to  their  subscription ;  with  which  they  all 
seemed  to  be  thoroughly  satisfied.  "  He  was  a  man," 
says  Mr.  Cole,  "  of  too  open  a  nature  to  endeavour  by 
artifice  to  circumvent  their  judgment;    and  as  it  was 


POWELL.  15T 

the  fashion,  even  to  leave  boys  to  judge  for  themselves, 
he  fairly  stated  the  case  to  them,  and  left  it  with 
them."  Hoping  also  to  do  further  service  amongst 
the  main  body  of  undergraduates,  who  had  been  strongly 
instigated  to  refuse  subscription  for  their  first  degree, 
he  rejoublished  his  commencement  sermon,  which  soon 
became  the  signal  for  much  and  violent  abuse.  In  a 
letter,  signed  Camillus,  and  published  in  the  London 
Chronicle,  January  25th,  17T2,  he  was  complimented 
on  having  "originated  an  idea  by  which  the  devil 
himself  might  subscribe,"  &c.;  and  the  republication 
is  styled,  "  an  effort  to  despoil  the  unsuspecting  sim- 
plicity of  youth  of  that  native  honour  and  integrity, 
which  will  hereafter  be  but  ill  exchanged  for  a  superior 
knowledge  of  the  world." 

Dr.  Powell  made  no  reply  to  his  accusers :  but  the 
question  was  taken  up  by  his  friend.  Dr.  Balguy,  arch- 
deacon of  Winchester ;  who,  in  the  fifth  of  his  admi- 
rable charges,  seems  to  have  placed  the  question  on 
its  most  tenable  grounds ;  making  it  also  manifest  to 
his  opponents,  that  as  much  integrity  and  candour  may 
be  exercised  in  supporting  established  institutions,  as 
in  attacking  and  depreciating  them. 

The  hopes  of  the  faction  in  the  metropolis  were  at 
this  time  much  elated ;  and  they  fully  expected,  amidst 
the  alarm  of  republican  tumults,  and  the  seditious  cries 
of  "Wilkes  and  Liberty,"  to  carry  their  favourite  mea- 
sure :  but  the  parliament  saw  through  the  scheme  laid 
for  the  destruction  of  our  ecclesiastical  establishment 
by  dissenters  of  all  descriptions ;  nor  was  it  moved  by 
any  remonstrances  from  the  discontented  of  the  Church 
itself,  who  had  joined  themselves  to  its  adversaries: 
it  rejected  therefore  the  petition  by  a  very  large  ma- 
jority. 

Dr.  Powell  was  a  vehement  opposer  of  Mr.  Jebb's 
plan  of  University  Reform :  but  this  is  a  controversy 
too  long  to  enter   upon   here.       Although   low  in   his 

VOL.    VIII.  J? 


158  POYNET. 

Church  principles,  he  was,  as  such  persons  often  are, 
a  great  stickler  for  legal  rights  and  constituted  authority. 
He  died  in  1775.  His  published  works,  edited  by  Dr. 
Balguy,  contain  three  discourses  preached  before  the 
university ;  thirteen  preached  in  the  college  chapel ; 
one  on  public  virtue  ;  three  charges  to  the  clergy  of  the 
archdeaconry  of  Colchester ;  and  his  Disputation  on 
taking  his  doctor's  degree. — Balguy.     Hughes. 


POYNET,   OE    POXET. 

John  Poynet,  or  Ponet,  was,  according  to  Strype,  a 
Kentish  man,  and  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge.  He 
was  born  about  the  year  1516.  He  was  distinguished 
in  the  University  as  a  mathematician,  and  as  one  skilled 
in  Patristic  theology.  He  was  a  decided  advocate  for 
the  Reformation  of  the  Church,  and  was  appointed 
his  chaplain  by  Archbishop  Cranmer.  He  translated 
Ochin's  Dialogues  against  the  pope's  supremacy,  and 
was  so  highly  considered  that  in  his  thirty-third  year 
he  was  consecrated   Bishop  of  Rochester. 

The  consecration  took  place  on  the  29th  of  June, 
1550,  and  is  thus  described  by  Strype:  "The  bishop 
having  on  his  mitre  and  cope,  usual  in  such  cases, 
went  into  his  chapel,  handsomely  and  decently  a.dorned, 
to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the  cus- 
tom, and  by  prescript  of  the  book  entitled  The  Book 
of  Common-Service.  Before  the  people  there  assem- 
bled, the  holy  suffrages  first  began,  and  were  publicly 
recited,  and  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  read  in  the  vulgar 
tongue ;  Nicholas,  ^  Bishop  of  London,  and  Arthur, 
Bishop  of  Bangor,  assisting ;  and,  having  their  sur- 
plices and  copes  on,  and  their  pastoral  staves  in  their 
hands,  led  Dr.  John  Poynet,  endued  with  the  like 
habits,  in  the  middle  of  them,  unto  the  most  reverend 
fiather,  and  presented  him  unto  him,  sitting  in  a  de- 


POYNET.  159 

cent  chair;  and  used  these  words,  'Most  reverend 
father  in  God,  we  present  unto  you  this  godly  and  well- 
learned  man  to  be  consecrated  bishop.'  The  bishop 
elect  forthwith  produced  the  king's  letters  patents  before 
the  archbishop  :  which,  by  command  of  the  said  arch- 
bishop, being  read  by  Dr.  Glyn,  the  said  Poynet  took 
the  oath  of  renouncing  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  then 
the  oath  of  canonical  obedience  to  the  archbishop. 
These  things  being  thus  dispatched,  the  archbishop 
exhorted  the  people  to  prayer  and  supplication  to  the 
Most  High,  according  to  the  order  prescribed  in  the 
Book  of  Ordination,  set  forth  in  the  month  of  March, 
1549.  According  to  which  order  he  was  elected  and 
consecrated,  and  endued  with  the  episcopal  ornaments, 
the  Bishop  of  London  first  having  read  the  third  chap- 
ter of  the  First  Epistle  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  in  the  man- 
ner of  a  sermon.  These  things  being  done,  and  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  celebrated  upon  a 
table  covered  with  a  white  linen  cloth,  by  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  two  assisting  bishops,  the  same  arch- 
bishop decreed  to  write  to  the  Archdeacon  of  Canter- 
bury for  the  investiture,  installation,  and  inthroniza- 
tion  of  the  said  Bishop  of  Ptochester,  as  it  w^as  customary. 
Present,  Anthony  Huse,  principal  Register  of  the  arch' 
bishop;  Peter  Lilly,  John  Lewis,  John  Incent,  public 
notaries;  and  many  others,  as  well  clerks  as  laics." 
In  1551,  he  was  translated  to  the  See  of  Winchester, 
after  the  deprivation  of  Gardiner.  He  was  a  frequent 
preacher,  and  wrote  several  treatises  in  defence  of  the 
Reformation ;  but  his  most  remarkable  performance 
was  what  is  commonly  called  King  Edward's  Cate- 
chism, which  appeared  in  1513,  in  two  editions,  the 
one  Latin,  the  other  English,  with  the  royal  privilege. 
From  this  Catechism  Nowell  took  much  in  forming 
his  own.  When  Queen  Mary  came  to  the  crown,  Poy- 
net, with  many  others,  retired  to  Strasburgh,  where 
he   died   on   the    11th   of  April,   1556,   before   he  had 


160  PRESTON. 

completed  his  fortieth  year.  He  also  wrote  : — A  Tra- 
gedy, or  Dialogue  of  the  unjust  usurped  Primacy  of  the 
Bishop  of  Ptome,  translated  from  Bernard  Ochinus ; 
A  Notable  Sermon  concerning  the  Plight  Use  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  &c.,  preached  before  the  King  at  West- 
minster, 1550;  Dialecticon  Viri  boni  et  literati  de 
Veritate,  Natura,  atque  Substantia  Corporis  et  San- 
guinis Christi  in  Eucharistia ;  in  this,  Bayle  says, 
he  endeavoured  to  reconcile  the  Lutherans  and  Zuing- 
lians ;  A  Short  Treatise  of  Politic  Power,  and  of 
the  True  Obedience  which  Subjects  owe  to  Kings  and 
other  Civil  Governors,  with  an  Exhortation  to  all 
true  natural  English  men,  compiled  by  D.  I.  P.  B. 
R,  V.  v.,  i.e.  Dr.  John  Poynet,  Bishop  of  Rochester 
and  Winchester ;  and,  A  Defence  for  Marriage  of  Priests. 
— Godwin.     Strijpe. 


PEESTON,    JOHN. 

The  following  is  the  account  given  of  Preston,  by 
Fuller: — "He  was  born  at  Heyford,  in  Northampton- 
shire; bred  in  Queen's  College,  in  Cambridge,  whose 
life  (interwoven  much  with  church  and  state  matters)  is 
so  well  written  by  his  pupil,  Master  Thomas  Ball,  that 
all  additions  thereunto  may  seem  '  carrying  of  coals 
to  Newcastle.'  However,  seeing  he  who  carrieth  char- 
coal (a  different  kind  from  the  native  coal  of  that  place) 
may  meet  with  a  chapman  there,  on  the  same  confidence 
a  word  or  two  of  this  doctor. 

"  Before  he  commenced  Master  of  Arts,  he  was  so  far 
from  eminency,  as  but  a  little  above  contempt.  Thus 
the  most  generous  wines  are  the  most  muddy  before  they 
are  fine.  Soon  after,  his  skill  in  philosophy  rendered 
him  to  the  general  respect  of  the  university. 

"  He  was  the  greatest  pupil-monger  in  England  in 
man's  memory,  having  sixteen  fellow- commoners  (most 


PRESTON.  161 

heirs  to  fair  estates)  admitted  in  one  year  in  Queen's 
College,  and  provided  convenient  accommodations  for 
them.  As  WilHam  the  popular  Earl  of  Nassau  was 
said  to  have  won  a  subject  from  the  King  of  Spain,  to 
his  own  party,  every  time  he  put  off  his  hat ;  so  was 
it  commonly  said  in  the  college,  that  every  time  when 
Master  Preston  plucked  off  his  hat  to  Doctor  Davenant 
the  college  master,  he  gained  a  chamber  or  study  for  one 
of  his  pupils  ;  amongst  whom  one  Chambers  a  Londoner 
(who  died  very  young,)  was  very  eminent  for  his  learning. 
Being  chosen  Master  of  Emanuel  College,  he  removed 
thither  with  most  of  his  pupils ;  and  I  remember  when 
it  was  much  admired  where  all  these  should  find 
lodgings  in  that  college,  which  was  so  full  already, 
'Oh!'  said  one,  'Master  Preston  will  carry  Chambers 
along  with  him.' 

"  The  party  called  Puritan  then  being  most  active  in 
Parliament,  and  Doctor  Preston  most  powerful  with 
them,  the  duke  rather  used  than  loved  him,  to  work 
that  party  to  his  compliance.  Some  thought  the  doctor 
was  unwilling  to  do  it ;  and  no  wonder  he  effected  not, 
what  he  affected  not.  Others  thought  he  was  unable, 
that  party  being  so  diffusive,  and  then,  in  their  designs 
(as  since  in  their  practices)  divided.  However,  whilst 
any  hope,  none  but  Doctor  Preston  with  the  duke,  set  by 
and  extolled,  and  afterwards,  set  by  and  neglected,  when 
found  useless  to  the  intended  purpose.  In  a  word,  my 
worthy  friend  fitly  calls  him  the  court-comet,  blazing  for 
a  time,  and  fading  soon  afterwards. 

"  He  was  a  perfect  politician,  and  used  (lapwing-like)  to 
flutter  most  on  that  place  which  was  furthest  from  his 
eggs ;  exact  at  the  concealing  of  his  intentions,  with  that 
simulation,  which  some  make  to  lie  in  the  marches  of 
things  lawful  and  unlawful.  He  had  perfect  command 
of  his  passion ;  with  the  Caspian  Sea  never  ebbing  nor 
flowing ;  and  would  not  alter  his  composed  pace  for  all 
the  whipping  which  satrical  wits  bestowed  upon  him. 
p   3 


162  PRICE. 

He  never  had  wife,  or  cure  of  souls  ;  and  leaving  a 
plentiful,  no  invidious  estate,  died  anno  Domini  1628, 
July  20." 

PKICE,    RICHARD. 

Richard  Price  was  born  at  Langeinor,  in  Glamorgan- 
sliire,  in  1723.  He  received  his  education  first  at  Tal- 
garth, in  his  native  country,  and  next  at  an  academy 
in  London.  After  residing  some  years  with  a  gentleman 
at  Stoke-Newington,  he  became  morning-preacher  at  the 
Gravel-pit  meeting,  Hackney.  In  1769,  the  University 
of  Glasgow  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  doctor  in 
divinity;  and  the  same  year  he  published  his  "  Treatise 
on  Reversionary  Payments,"  which  was  followed,  in  1772, 
by  "  Observations  on  the  National  Debt."  During  the 
American  war,  he  printed  two  pamphlets  against  that 
measure,  one  entitled  "  Observations  on  Civil  Liberty" ; 
and  the  other,  "Observations  on  Civil  Government";  for 
which  the  corporation  in  London  voted  him  thanks,  and 
a  gold  box.  In  1778,  he  had  a  friendly  controversy  with 
Dr.  Priestley,  on  materialism  and  necessity.  On  the 
termination  of  the  war,  Mr.  Pitt  consulted  Dr.  Price 
respecting  the  best  mode  of  liquidating  the  national 
debt,  the  result  of  which  it  is  said,  was  the  adoption  of 
the  sinking  fund.  When  the  French  Revolution  broke 
out,  the  doctor  distinguished  himself  by  a  sermon,  in 
which  he  hailed  that  event  as  the  commencement 
of  a  glorious  era.  This  drew  upon  the  preacher  some 
strong  animadversions  from  Mr.  Burke  in  his  celebrated 
Reflections.  Dr.  Price  died  March  19th,  1791.  As  a 
calculator  he  was  pre-eminent;  and  the  Society  for 
Equitable  Assurances  was  greatly  indebted  to  him  for 
his  services.  He  was  also  an  active  member  of  the 
Royal  Society;  and  very  amiable  in  private  life.  His 
other  work's  are : — Review  of  the  Questions  and  Diffi- 
culties iu  Morals ;  Dissertations  on  Prayer,  Providence, 


PRIDEAUX.  163 

Miracles,  and  a  Future  State ;  Essay  on  the  Population 
of  England;  State  of  the  Public  Debts  and  Finances; 
On  the  Importance  of  the  American  Ptcvolution ;  and  a 
Volume  of  Sermons. — Watkins  Biog.  Diet. 


PEIDEAUX,    JOHN. 

Jqhn  Peideaux  was  born  in  1578,  at  Stowford,  in  the 
Parish  of  Harford,  near  Ivy  Bridge,  in  Devonshire. 
The  fallowing  is  the  account  given  of  him  by  Fuller. 
"  He  was  bred  scholar,  fellow,  and  rector  of  Exeter 
College,  in  Oxford,  Canon  of  Christ-Church,  and  above 
thirty  years  king's  professor  in  that  university.  An 
excellent  linguist;  but  so  that  he  would  make  words 
wait  on  his  matter,  chiefly  aiming  at  expressiveness 
therein ;  he  had  a  becoming  festivity,  which  was  Aris- 
totle's,  not  St.  Paul's,  EvrpaTreXta. 

"Admirable  his  memory,  retaining  whatever  he  had 
read.  The  Welsh  have  a  proverb  (in  my  mind  some- 
what uncharitable)  '  He  that  hath  a  good  memory, 
giveth  few  alms ;'  because  he  keepeth  in  mind  what 
and  to  whom  he  had  given  before.  But  this  doctor 
crossed  this  proverb,  with  his  constant  charity  to  all 
in  want. 

"  His  learning  w^as  admired  by  foreigners,  Sextinus 
Amma,  Pdvet,  &c.  He  was  not  vindictive  in  the  least 
degree ;  one  intimate  with  him  having  assured  me,  that 
he  would  forgive  the  greatest  injury,  upon  the  least 
show  of  the  party's  sorrow,  and  restore  him  to  the 
degree  of  his  form&r  favour;  and  though  politicians 
will  thence  collect  him  no  prudent  man,  divines  will 
conclude  him  a  good  Christian. 

"  Episcopacy  in  England  being  grievously  wounded  by 
malevolent  persons.  King  Charles  the  First  conceived 
that  the  best  wine  and  oil  that  could  be  poured  into 
these  wounds  was,  to  select  persons  of  known  learning 


164  PRIDE  AUX. 

and  unblameable  lives,  to  supply  the  vacant  bishoprics ; 
amongst  whom  Dr.  Prideaux  was  made  Bishop  of  Wor* 
cester." 

But  it  was  all  in  vain.  He  adhered  to  the  king's 
cause,  and  having  excommunicated  all  who  took  up 
arms  against  his  majesty  in  the  diocese  of  Worcester, 
he  was  plundered,  and  was  obliged  at  last  to  sell  his 
library.  Dr.  Gauden  said  of  him  that  he  had  become 
literally  a  Helluo  Librorum,  being  obhged  to  turn  his 
books  into  bread  for  his  children.  But  he  never  lost 
his  good  temper.  A  friend  coming  to  see  him,  and 
saluting  him  in  the  common  form  of  "  How  doth  your 
lordship  do?"  "Never  better  in  my  life,"  said  he, 
"  only  I  have  too  great  a  stomach ;  for  I  have  eaten 
that  little  plate  which  the  sequestrators  left  me  ;  I  have 
eaten  a  great  library  of  excellent  books ;  I  have  eaten 
a  great  deal  of  linen,  much  of  my  brass,  some  of  my 
pewter,  and  now  I  am  come  to  eat  iron,  and  what 
will  come  next  I  know  not."  He  died  in  the  year  1650, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-two,  leaving  to  his  children  no 
legacy  but  "pious  poverty,  God's  blessing,  and  a 
fathers  prayers,"  as  appears  from  his  last  will  and 
testament.  His  learning  was  very  extensive,  his  me- 
mory prodigious,  and  he  was  reputed  the  best  disputant 
in  his  time  in  the  university.  It  is  recorded  to  his 
honour  that  he  was  at  the  same  time  "  an  humble  man, 
of  plain  and  downright  behaviour,"  exemplary  in  his 
charity,  affable  in  conversation,  and  never  desirous  of 
concealing  his  lowly  origin.  He  was  often  heard  to  say, 
"  If  I  could  have  been  clerk  of  Ugborow,  I  had  never 
been  Bishop  of  Worcester ;"  and  so  far  from  being 
ashamed  of  his  original  poverty,  he  kept  in  the  same 
wardrobe  with  his  rochet,  the  leather  breeches  which 
he  wore  when  he  came  to  Oxford,  as  a  memorial  of  it. 

He  was  the  author  of: — Tabulae  ad  Grammaticam 
Graecam  introductoriae,  1608,  4to,  with  which  were 
printed,  Tyrocinium  ad  Syllogismum  contexendum,  and 


PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY.  165 

Heptades  Logicae,   sive  monita  ad    ampliores  Tractatus 
introductoria ;    Lectiones  decern   de   totidem  Religionis 
Capitibus,  &c.,   1625,   4to ;    Fasciculus  controversiarum 
theologicamm,   &c.,   1649,  4to ;     Theologise   Scholasticse 
Syntagma  Mnemonicum,  printed  in  1651,  4to ;    Conci- 
liorum    Synopsis,    printed   in   1661,    4to ;    Manuductio 
ad  Theologiam  Polemicam,  printed  in  1657,  8vo ;    Hy 
pomnemata   Logica,    Rhetorica,    Physica,    Metaphysica 
&c.,  8vo;  Twenty  Sermons,   1636,  4to ;    Nine  Sermons 
on   several   occasions,   1641,   4to ;    Histories  of  Succes 
sions  in  States,  Countries,  or  Families,  printed  in  1653 
Euchologia,  or,  the  Doctrines  of  Practical  Praying,  &c. 
printed   in    1655,    8vo;    The   Doctrine   of    Conscience 
framed  according  to  the  Form  in  the  Common  Prayer, 
&c.,   printed  in   1656,   8vo  ;    Sacred  Eloquence,  or,  the 
Art  of  Rhetoric,  as  it  is  laid  down  in  Scripture,  printed 
in   1656,   8vo;    and  various  other  w^orks  in  Latin  and 
English,  the  titles   of  which   are   inserted    in    Wood's 
Athen.  Oivon. — Fuller.     Wood.     Walker. 


PEIDEAUX,    HUMrHEEY. 

The  great  work  of  Dean  Prideaux,  the  Connection  of 
the  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  is  still  a 
standard  work  among  us,  and  gives  an  interest  to  his 
name.  A  life  was  published  of  him  in  1748,  which 
contains  nothing  of  any  general  interest,  being  merely 
the  narrative  of  a  respectable  and  learned  man,  who  did 
his  duty  respectably  in  the  various  places  to  which  he 
was  called,  and  who  rather  exaggerated  his  influence 
and  importance  in  his  own  mind.  He  was  born  at 
Padstow,  in  Cornwall,  in  1648,  and  was  educated  at 
Westminster,  and  Christ  Church.  At  Christ  Church  he 
Avas  a  diligent  and  successful  student,  as  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  he  obtained  the  patronage  of  Fell.  Dr. 
Fell  employed  him  in  supplying  notes  to  an  edition  of 


166  PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY. 

Lucius  Florus,  and  afterwards  in  completing  the  notes 
and  explanations  on  the  Arundel  Marbles,  which  had 
been  published  in  the  first  instance  by  Selden.  On  the 
latter  work  he  was  employed  for  two  years.  In  1676, 
he  published  his  Marmora  Oxoniensia  ex  Arundellianis, 
Seldenianis,  aliisque  constata,  cum  perpetuo  Commen- 
tario,  fol.  This  book,  published  when  he  was  only 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  gave  him  a  high  reputation  in 
the  university,  and  was  well  received  by  the  learned 
world,  particularly  in  Germany,  France,  and  Italy.  So 
great  was  the  demand  for  it,  that  it  soon  became  scarce, 
and  was  only  to  be  obtained  at  an  advanced  price. 
Prideaux,  however,  is  said  to  have  entertained  little 
value  for  the  work  himself,  owing  to  its  having  been 
drawn  up  in  too  great  haste,  and  to  the  number  of 
typographical  errors  with  which  it  abounds,  through  the 
negligence  of  the  corrector  of  the  University  press.  A 
more  correct  edition  was  published  under  the  inspection 
of  Michael  Maittaire,  in  1732,  fol.  Having,  by  order, 
presented  one  of  the  copies  of  the  Marmora  to  the  lord- 
chancellor  Finch,  this  introduced  him  to  his  lordship's 
patronage,  who  soon  after  placed  one  of  his  sons  under 
him,  as  tutor  at  Christ  Church  ;  and  in  1679,  presented 
him  to  the  Rectory  of  St.  Clement's,  in  the  suburb  of 
Oxford,  where  he  officiated  for  several  years.  The  same 
year  he  published  Two  Tracts  of  Maimonides  in  Hebrew, 
with  a  Latin  translation  and  notes,  under  the  title,  De 
Jure  Pauperis  et  Peregrin!  apud  Judeos.  This  he  did 
in  consequence  of  having  been  appointed  Dr.  Busby's 
Hebrew  lecturer  in  Christ  Church,  and  with  a  view  to 
teach  students  the  rabbinical  dialect,  and  to  read  it 
without  points.  In  1681,  the  lord-chancellor  Finch, 
then  Earl  of  Nottingham,  presented  him  to  a  prebend 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Norwich.  In  November,  1682,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  degree  of  bachelor  in  divinity,  and 
on  the  death  of  Lord  Nottingham,  found  another  patron 
in  his  successor,  Sir  Francis  North ;  who,   in  February 


PRIDEAUX,  HUMPHREY.  ]67 

of  the  following  year,  gave  hira  the  Rectory  of  Bladen, 
with   Woodstock    Chapelry,    in    Oxfordshire.      He   pro- 
ceeded D.D.  in  1686,  and  having  exchanged  his  living 
of  Bladen  for  that  of  Sahara,  in  Norfolk,   he  went  to 
settle  upon  his  prebend  in  Norwich.     Here  he  became 
engaged   in    some    severe    contests    with    the    Roman 
Catholics,  the  result  of  which  was  the  publication  of 
his  work,  The  Validity  of  the   Orders   of  the   Church 
of  England  made  out.     He  also  took  an  active  part  in 
resisting  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  James  II.,  which 
affected  the  interests   of  the  Established  Church.      In 
1688,  he  was  collated  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Suffolk, 
and  not  without  due  consideration,   took  the   oaths   of 
allegiance  to  William  and  Mary,  and  acted  up  to  them 
faithfully;    but  he  always  looked  upon    the    nonjurors 
as   honest  men,    and  treated  them  with   kindness    and 
respect.     In   1694,   he  resigned  his  Hving  at  Saham  ; 
and   in    1696,    he    was   instituted    to   the   Vicarage    of 
Trowse,    near   Norwich.      He  published,   in    1687,    his 
Life  of  Mahomet.       In    1702,   he  was   made   Dean    of 
Norwich  ;    and    in    1707,    he   published   Directions    to 
Churchwardens  ;  a  w^ork  which  has  often  been  reprinted. 
The  best  edition  is  that  corrected  and  improved  by  Tyr- 
whitt,  London,  1833.     In  1710,  he  published  his  work 
upon  Tythes,  8vo  ;  and  in  the  same  year,   he  resigned 
the  Vicarage  of  Trowse.     He  was  during  the  latter  part 
of  his  life  greatly  afflicted  with  the  stone,  which  entirely 
disqualified   him  for  public  duties.      But  he  still   per- 
sued  his  private  studies,   and   at  length,  in   1715,    he 
brought  out  the  first  part  of  his  last  and  greatest  work, 
The  Connection  of  the  History  of  the   Old    and   New 
Testament,    and   the   second  part   in   1717,    fol.      His 
strength  had  been  long  declining,  and  he  died  November 
1st,  1724,  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  and  was  buried 
in  Norwich   Cathedral.      About   three    days   before    his 
death  he  presented  his  collection  of  Oriental  books,  more 
than  300  in  number,  to  the  hbrary  of  Clare  Hall,  Cam- 


168  PRIESTLEY,  JOSEPH. 

bridge.  Several  posthumous  Tracts  and  Letters,  with' 
a  Life  of  Dr.  Prideaux,  the  author  of  which  is  not  named, 
were  published  in  1748,  8vo. — Life  above  refered  to. 


PRIESTLEY,    JOSEPH. 

Joseph  Priestley  is  chiefly  known  in  the  theological 
world  for  the  controversy  in  which  he  was  engaged 
with  Bishop  Horsley ;  and  for  an  account  of  which 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Biography  of  that  prelate, 
who  exposed  the  ignorance  and  want  of  scholarship, 
not  less  than  the  bad  principles  of  his  opponent. 
The  following  notice  is  taken  from  Watkins's  Univer- 
sal Biographical   Dictionary : — 

"  Priestley  was  born  at  Fieldhead,  in  Yorkshire, 
March  18th,  1733.  He  was  educated  in  an  academy  ^ 
at  Daventry,  after  which  he  became  minister  to  a  con- 
gregation at  Needham  Market,  in  Suffolk ;  from  whence 
he  removed  to  Nantwich,  in  Cheshire,  and  next  to 
Warrington,  where  the  dissenters  had  formed  a  semi- 
nary, on  a  plan  of  liberal  sentiment.  While  tutor 
in  this  institution,  he  published  the  History  of  Elec- 
tricity, which  procured  his  election  into  the  Eoyal 
Society,  and  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  from  Edin- 
burgh. Soon  after  this  he  left  Warrington,  and  went 
to  Leeds,  where  he  made  those  important  discoveries 
with  regard  to  the  properties  of  fixed  air,  for  which 
he  obtained  the  Copley  medal  from  the  Royal  Society 
in  1772.  In  1776,  he  communicated  to  the  same 
learned  body  his  observations  on  respiration,  being  the 
first  who  experimentally  ascertained  that  the  commoni 
inspired  air  becomes  both  lessened  and  injured,  by  the 
action  of  the  blood,  as  it  passes  through  the  lungs. 
After  this  he  made  some  curious  observations  on  the 
food  of  plants,  and  the  production  of  the  various  gases. 
These  pursuits  procured  him  the  appointment  of  com^ 


PRISCILLIAN.  169 

panion  to  the  Earl  of  Shelburne,  with  whom  he  resided 
seven  years,  and  then  retired  on  a  pension  to  Birming- 
ham, where  he  devoted  more  attention  to  polemics  than 
philosophy.  He  had,  indeed,  previously  published  some 
works  in  defence  of  materialism  and  necessity  ;  but  now 
he  made  more  direct  attacks  upon  the  common  faith  of 
Christians.  In  1783,  came  out  his  History  of  the  Cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity;  which,  though  a  compilation 
from  modern  books,  had  an  imposing  appearance  of 
learned  research.  On  this  account,  Dr.  Horsley  thought 
it  necessary  to  expose  the  sources  from  whence  the  work 
was  drawn,  and  to  show  the  fallacy  of  its  positions.  He 
next  engaged  warmly  in  the  proceedings  for  a  repeal 
of  the  corporation  and  test  acts.  But  it  was  the  French 
revolution  that  afforded  him  the  widest  field  ;  and  he 
did  not  fail  to  display  his  zeal  on  that  occasion.  This, 
however,  gave  much  offence  to  the  people  of  Birming- 
ham, among  whom  party-spirit  ran  very  high,  and  was 
excited,  beyond  doubt,  by  the  writings  of  Dr.  Priestley. 
At  length,  an  entertainment,  on  the  14th  of  July,  1791, 
to  celebrate  the  destruction  of  the  Bastile,  furnished- 
the  pretext  for  a  riot,  in  which  many  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, and  that  of  the  doctor's  among  the  rest.  After 
this  he  removed  to  Hackney,  where  he  succeeded  Dr. 
Price;  but  in  1794,  he  went  to  America,  and  died  there, 
February  6th,  1804. 


PRISCILLIAN. 

PRTSCILLIAN,  a  heretic  of  the  fourth  century,  was  by 
birth  a  Spaniard.  The  heresy  by  which  his  name  has  been 
rendered  infamous  is  a  modification  of  Manicheism. 
It  was  introduced  into  Spain  by  Marcus,  a  magician  of 
Memphis,  but  owed  its  success  to  the  patronage  of  Pris- 
cillian,  who  was  a  man  of  large  fortune  and  gifted  with 
great  talent  and  eloquence.      Their  followers  were  called 

VOL.    VIII,  Q 


170  PRISCILLIAN. 

Priscillianists.  Under  his  patronage,  the  new  doctrines 
were  rapidlj^  extended,  and  infected  even  some  amongst 
the  bishops,  as  Instantius  and  Salvianus.  Although 
condemned  by  a  council  at  Saragossa,  these  bishops 
were  not  deterred,  and  presumed  so  far  as  to  con- 
stitute PrisciUian  Bishop  of  Avila.  The  Emperor 
Gratian  expelled  them  from  Spain,  and  they  immediately 
went  to  Milan  and  to  Ptome,  to  gain  to  their  interests 
the  pontiff  Damasus  and  the  imperial  court.  They 
succeeded  by  their  arts  in  the  latter  attempt.  Their 
chief  opponent,  Ithiacus  Bishop  of  Ossonoba,  was  obliged 
to  leave  Spain,  but  in  a  short  time,  laid  his  complaint 
before  the  new  emperor,  Maximus,  who,  after  the  death 
of  Gratian,  began  to  rule  from  Treves  over  the  western 
provinces  of  the  empire.  The  usurper  commanded  the 
chiefs  of  the  Priscillianists  to  appear  before  a  council 
at  Bordeaux.  Here  Instantius  was  deposed,  but  Pris- 
ciUian appealed  to  the  emperor ;  and  the  council  which 
ought  not  to  have  been  diverted  by  this  artifice  from 
jjronouncing  over  him  sentence  of  deposition  and  ex- 
communication, granted  to  him  his  request.  Pris^ 
cillian  therefore  and  his  followers  on  the  one  side,  and 
Idiacus,  Bishop  of  Merida,  and  Ithiacus,  on  the  other, 
met  at  Treves.  Ithiacus,  a  short-sighted  zealot,  persuaded 
Maximus  to  violate  the  promise  which  he  had  made  to 
St.  Martin  of  Tours,  that  he  would  not  shed  the  blood 
of  PrisciUian.  The  prefect  Evodius  conducted  the 
examination  according  to  the  Roman  forms,  with  the 
application  of  the  torture,  and  the  emperor  signed  the 
sentence  of  death.  PrisciUian,  the  widow  Euchrocia, 
and  five  others  were  accused  of  odious  crimes,  and 
beheaded  in  385 ;  Instantius  and  others  were  excom- 
municated. 

The  system  of  PrisciUian  had  for  its  foundation  the 
Manichean  dualism.  It  taught  that  an  evil  principle, 
which  had  sprung  from  chaos  and  eternal  darkness,  was 
the  creator  of  the  lower  world  :  that  souls,  which  are  of 


PTOLEMY.  171 

a  divine  nature,  were  sent  by  God  from  heaven,  to  combat 
with  the  powers  of  darkness  and  against  their  kingdom, 
but  were  overcome  and  enclosed  within  bodies.  To 
free  these  souls,  the  Redeemer  descended  from  heaven, 
clothed  with  a  celestial  body,  which  was,  in  appearance 
only,  like  to  the  bodies  of  ordinary  men.  By  his 
sufferings, — which,  according  to  PrisciUian,  were  only 
apparent  and  symbolical, — he  erased  the  mark  which  the 
evil  spirits  had  impressed  upon  the  souls,  when  they 
confined  them  within  material  bodies.  The  sect  pro- 
hibited the  use  of  marriage,  commanded  abstinence 
from  animal  food,  and  rejected  the  belief  of  the  resur- 
rection. Their  mysteries  were  not  less  abominable  than 
those  of  the  Manichees.  To  conceal  their  own  doctrines, 
and  to  calumniate  the  Catholics,  by  lies  and  false  swearing, 
they  considered  perfectly  justifiable. — Dollinger. 


PKITZ,  JOHN  GEORGE. 

John  George  Pritz  was  born  at  Leipsic,  in  166-2,  and 
in  1698,  was  appointed  professor  of  divinity  and  meta- 
physics at  Zerbet  in  Saxony.  In  1711,  he  removed  to 
Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  where  he  died  in  1732.  He 
published,  Patris  Macarii  ^gyptii  Homiliae  L.  Greece 
et  Latine,  interprete  Zacharia  Palthenio  ;  Macarii  ^gyptii 
Opera ;  Introductio  in  Lectionem  Novi  Testamenti ;  an 
edition  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  original  Greek, 
with  various  Readings,  Geographical  Charts,  &c.  ; 
Sermons ;  Devotional  Treatises ;  translated  from  the 
English  into  German;  and  an  edition  of  the  Latin 
Letters  of  Milton. 


PTOLEMY    OF    LUCCA, 


Ptolemy  of  Lucca  is  the  historical  name  of  Bartholomew 


172  PYLE. 

Fiadoni,  which  he  assumed  on  entering  the  order  of 
St.  Dominic.  He  flourished  in  the  14th  century  and 
was  superior  of  the  monastery  both  at  Lucca  and  Florence. 
He  was  confessor  to  Pope  John  XXII.,  and  in  1318,  he 
was  made  Bishop  of  Torcello,  under  the  patriarchate  of 
Venice.  He  died  in  1327.  His  Annals  extend  from 
1060  to  1303,  and  were  published  at  Lyons  in  1619. 
But  his  great  work  is  his  Historiae  Ecclesiasticae,  Lib. 
XXIV.,  commencing  with  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  brought 
down  to  1313.  This  after  remaining  long  in  MS.  was 
published  at  Milan,  in  1727,  by  Muratori,  in  his  Pierum 
Italicarum  Scriptores. — Diqnn. 


PYLE,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Pyle,  a  latitudinarian  divine,  was  born  at  Stodey 
in  Norfolk,  in  1674.  He  graduated  at  Caius  College, 
Cambridge,  and  on  his  being  ordained,  became  curate 
of  St.  Margaret's  parish  in  King's  Lynn;  and  in  1701, 
he  was  appointed  minister  of  St.  Nicolas's  chapel. 
Between  the  years  1708  and  1718,  he  published  six 
occasional  sermons,  chiefly  in  defence  of  the  principles 
of  the  Revolution,  and  the  succession  of  the  Brunswick 
family.  He  was  violent  and  impetuous,  and  having 
taken  the  heterodox  side  in  the  Bangorian  controversy, 
in  which  he  published  two  pamphlets  in  vindication  of 
Bishop  Hoadley,  he  was  rewarded  by  a  prebend  and  a 
residentiaryship  in  that  cathedral.  In  1732,  he  obtained 
the  vicarage  of  St.  Margaret  at  Lynn.  He  died  in  1756. 
He  wrote  : — Paraphrase  on  the  Acts,  and  all  the  Epistles, 
in  the  manner  of  Dr.  Clarke,  This  was  followed  by  his 
Paraphrase  on  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  and  on  the 
Historical  Books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Sixty  sermons 
of  his  were  published  in  1773 — 1783,  3  vols  8vo,  by 
his  youngest  son  Philip. — Nichols  s  Bomjer. 


QUADRATUS.  173 


QUADEATUS. 

QuADEATUs,  one  of  the  earliest  Christian  apologists,  was 
born  or  at  least  educated  at  Athens,  of  which  city  he 
became  the  bishop.  Eusebius  in  the  history  of  affairs 
in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  writes  thus. — "  Of  those  that 
flourished  in  these  times,  Quadratus  is  said  to  have  been 
distinguished  for  his  prophetical  gifts.  There  were  many 
others,  also  noted  in  these  times,  who  held  the  lirst 
rank  in  the  apostolic  succession.  These,  as  the  holy 
disciples  of  such  men,  also  built  up  the  Churches,  where 
foundations  had  been  previously  laid  in  every  place  by 
the  Apostles.  They  augmented  the  means  of  promul- 
gating the  Gospel  more  and  more,  and  spread  the  seeds 
of  salvation,  and  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,  throughout 
the  world  far  and  wide.  For  the  most  of  the  disciples 
at  that  time,  animated  with  a  more  ardent  love  of  the 
Divine  word,  had  first  fulfilled  the  Saviour's  precept,  by 
distributing  their  substance  to  the  needy :  afterwards 
leaving  their  country,  they  performed  the  office  of  evan- 
gelists to  those  who  had  not  yet  heard  the  faith,  whilst 
with  a  noble  ambition  to  proclaim  Christ,  they  also 
delivered  to  them  the  books  of  the  holy  gospels.  After 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  faith  in  foreign  parts  as 
the  particular  object  of  their  mission,  and  after  appointing 
others  as  shepherds  of  the  flocks,  and  committing  to 
these  the  care  of  those  that  had  been  recently  introduced, 
they  went  again  to  other  regions  and  nations,  with  the 
grace  and  co-operation  of  God.  The  Holy  Spirit  also 
still  wTought  many  wonders  through  them,  so  that  as 
soon  as  the  gospel  was  heard,  men  voluntarily,  in 
crowds,  and  eagerly,  embraced  the  true  faith,  with 
their  whole  minds.  As  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  give 
the  number  of  the  individuals  that  became  pastors 
or  evangelists,  during  the  first  immediate  succession 
from  the  Apostles  in  the  Churches  throughout  the  world, 
Q  3 


174  QUADRATUS. 

we  have  only  recorded  those  by  name  in  our  history, 
of  whom  we  have  received  the  traditional  account,  as 
it  is  delivered  in  the  various  comments  on  the  apos- 
tolic doctrine  still   extant." 

He  also  adds  in  another  place;  "Trajan  having 
held  the  sovereignty  for  twenty  years,  wanting  six 
months,  was  succeeded  in  the  imperial  office  by  ^lius 
Adrian.  To  him,  Quadratus  addressed  a  discourse, 
as  an  apology  for  the  religion  that  we  profess ;  because 
certain  malicious  persons  attempted  to  harass  our  bre- 
thren. The  work  is  still  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the 
brethren,  as  also  in  our  own,  from  which  any  one 
may  see  evident  proof,  both  of  the  understanding  of 
the  man,  and  of  his  apostolic  faith.  The  writer  shew^s 
the  antiquity  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  in  these 
passages  :  '  the  deeds  of  our  Saviour,'  says  he,  '  were 
always  before  you,  for  they  were  true  miracles  :  those 
that  were  healed,  those  that  were  raised  from  the  dead, 
who  were  seen,  not  only  when  healed,  and  when  raised, 
but  were  always  present.  They  remained  living  a  long 
time,  not  only  whilst  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  but  likewise 
when  He  had  left  the  earth  ;  so  that  some  of  them  have 
also  lived  to  our  own  times.'  Such  was  Quadratus.  Aris- 
tides,  also,  a  man  faithfully  devoted  to  the  rehgion 
we  profess,  like  Quadratus,  has  left  to  posterity,  a 
defence  of  the  faith,  addressed  to  Adrian.  This  work 
is  also  preserved  by  a  great  number,  even  to  the 
present  day." 

Eusebius  also  adds  in  his  Chronicle,  and  he  is 
supported  in  that  statement  by  Jerome,  that  this 
piece  produced  the  wished-for  effect  upon  the  emperor's 
mind,  and  was  the  means  of  procuring  a  temporary 
calm  for  the  professors  of  Christianity.  Of  this  work, 
we  have  only  a  small  fragment  remaining,  preserved 
by  Eusebius.  Valesius,  Dupin,  Tillemont,  and  Basnage, 
maintain  that  Quadratus  the  Apologist  was  not  the 
same   person    with    the    bishop    of  Athens ;   but   this 


QUESNEL.  ]75 

opinion  has  been  refuted  by  Cave,  Grabe,  and  Lardner. 
— Eusehius.     St.  Jerome. 


QUESNEL,    PASQUIEE. 

The  life  of  Quesnel,  like  those  of  Arnauld,  Jansenius 
and  Pascal,  is  interesting  as  throwing  light  on  the 
history  of  the  Gallican  Church.  The  following  life  is 
taken  from  the  introductory  essay  supplied  to  the  English 
translation  of  the  Moral  Reflections  by  Dr.  Daniel 
Wilson,  the  present  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  Pasquier 
Quesnel  was  born  at  Paris,  July  14th,  1634.  His 
grandfather  was  a  native  of  Scotland ;  but  whether 
a  Roman  Catholic  or  not,  does  not  appear.  His  father 
was  most  probably  of  that  persuasion ;  and  Pasquier 
after  being  educated  at  the  University  of  Paris,  entered 
into  the  Religious  Congregation  of  the  Oratoire,  in  1657. 
He  devoted  himself  from  his  earliest  years,  to  the  study 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures  and  of  the  fathers  of  the  Church. 
He  began  soon  to  compose  books  of  piety,  chiefly  for 
the  use  of  the  young  people  intrusted  to  his  care.  It 
was  in  this  course  that  he  was  led  to  write  the  first 
portion  of  those  Reflections  which,  thirty  years  after- 
wards, kindled  so  ardent  a  controversy.  One  or  two 
persons  of  distinction  having  been  much  delighted  with 
them,  encouraged  him  to  extend  his  notes  to  the  whole 
of  the  Gospels  ;  for  at  first  they  comprehended  only 
some  portions  of  our  Lord  s  life,  and  they  thus  gra- 
dally  swelled  into  a  very  important  work,  w^hich  gave 
a  character  to  the  age  in  which  it  appeared.  It  was 
in  1671,  that  the  first  edition  was  published  under  the 
sanction  of  the  then  Bishop  of  Chalons  sur  Marne ;  for 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  persons  of  that  station,  if 
men  of  piety,  to  authorize  and  circulate  works  of  devo- 
tion, with  the  sufferance  of  their  superiors,  so  long 
iis  the    peculiar  tenets    of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 


176  QUESNEL. 

were  intermingled,  and  no  great  stir  was  excited  about 
the  evangelical  truths  which  they  contained.  Quesnel 
continually  added  to  his  Reflections  during  the  rest  of 
his  hfe.  He  embraced  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
the  Epistles  in  his  plan ;  besides  enriching  by  more 
than  one  half,  the  original  notes.  His  last  years  were 
dedicated  to  the  preparation  of  a  still  more  enlarged 
edition,  with  much  new  matter,  which  was  published 
in  1 727.  Nearly  sixty  years  were  thus  employed  more 
or  less,  upon  this  pleasing  and  elevated  task — another 
proof  amongst  a  thousand,  that  nothing  really  excellent 
is  the  fruit  of  haste.  When  you  come  to  understand 
the  real  facts,  you  discover  that  the  books  which  last, 
which  form  eras  in  theology,  which  go  out  with  a  large 
measure  of  the  Divine  blessing,  are  the  result  of  much 
prayer  and  meditation,  of  thoughts  often  revolved  and 
matured  by  degrees.  Thus  new  and  important  lights 
irradiate  the  mind,  the  proximate  ideas  are  suggested 
by  time  and  occasion,  errors  and  excrescencies  are 
detected,  topics  assume  a  new  face  and  consistency, 
prayer  brings  down  the  influences  of  grace,  all  the 
powers  of  the  mind  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
inquiry,  and  something  is  produced  for  the  honour  of 
God  and  the   permanent  welfare  of  His  Church. 

One  great  work  is  commonly  as  much  as  one  man 
produces ;  and  this  the  result  of  unexpected  incident, 
rather  than  of  express  intention,  in  the  first  instance. 
Pascal  left  his  Thoughts — Bacon,  his  Novum  Organum, 
Butler,  his  Analog}^ — Quesnel,  his  Reflections, — a  life 
having  been,  in  each  case,  devoted  to  the  particular 
inquiry ;  and  the  form  and  magnitude  and  importance 
of  each  work,  having  been  least  of  all,  in  the  first 
intentions  of  the  writers.  Pride  conceives  great  designs, 
and  accomplishes  little  ;  humility  dreads  the  promise  of 
difficult  undertakings,    and  accomplishes  much. 

Quesnel's  sentiments  on  religion  were  now  becoming 
known,  as  his  book   spread.     His    talents,  his    elegant 


QUESNEL.  177 

style,  his  brilliancy  of  imaginatioD,  were  acknowledged. 
His  deep  and  penetrating  piety  was  not  immediately 
understood.  His  whole  life  seems  to  have  been  dedicated 
to  the  love  of  his  Crucified  Saviour.  The  fall  and 
total  corruption  of  our  nature,  the  distinct  necessity  of 
grace  for  the  production  of  anything  really  good,  the 
grateful  adoration  of  the  purposes  and  will  of  God 
towards  His  elect :  these  formed  the  foundation  of 
Quesnel's  religious  principles.  They  were  not  held 
merely  as  doctrines ;  they  were  insisted  on,  felt,  followed 
out  into  their  consequences.  A  deep  and  tender 
humility  appears  in  his  spirit,  a  deadness  of  affection 
as  to  the  world,  a  perception  of  joy  and  peace  in 
the  spiritual  life,  a  faith  full  of  childlike  simplicity 
and  repose  of  soul  on  the  grace  and  power  of  Christ ; 
a  minute  conscientiousness  in  the  application  of  his 
principles  to  his  whole  conduct,  a  skill  in  detecting 
false  motives,  a  bold  and  uncompromising  courage  in 
speaking  truth :  these  were  the  fruits  of  the  great 
Scriptural   principles  which  he  had  imbibed. 

Mixed,  however,  with  these  sound  and  elevated 
principles  and  habits,  were  many  great  errors  and 
superstitions,  flowing  from  his  education  in  the  bosom 
of  the  apostate  Church.  His  study  of  the  fathers,  instead 
of  being  confined  to  a  fair  and  Scriptural  consultation 
of  their  writings,  was  cramped  by  his  reliance  on 
them  as  authoritative  guides.  They  warped  his  judg- 
ment instead  of  assisting  it.  The  doctrine  of  Justifi- 
cation was  confounded  with  that  of  Sanctifi cation  ;  and 
though  both  were  bottomed  upon  grace  in  the  most 
decisive  manner,  yet  so  wide  a  departure  from  the 
statements  of  Scripture,  could  not  but  have  an  unfa- 
vourable influence  upon  the  whole  tenor  of  his  religion. 
Thus,  like  Pascal,  Nicole,  Arnauld,  St.  Cyran,  and 
the  other  great  names  of  the  same  school,  the  highest 
order  of  excellence  on  capital  points,  was  combined 
with  some   glaring   errors.     Deep    spirituality  of  mind, 


178  QUESNEL. 

unaffected  humility,  holy  love  to  the  Divine  Saviour, 
a  simple  repose  on  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a 
life  of  devoted  and  courageous  obedience,  were  associated 
with  much  uncommanded  prostration  of  the  under- 
standing to  human  authority,  many  dangerous  super- 
stitions, and  much  uncharitable  condemnation  of 
Protestants. 

It  was  in  1681,  that  persecution  first  burst  out 
against  Quesnel.  The  new  doctrines  (for  truth,  when 
it  re-appears  in  force,  is  new  to  fallen  man,  especially 
in  a  very  corrupt  Church,)  began  to  attract  attention. 
Numbers  espoused  them.  The  Jesuits  were  the  first 
to  take  the  alarm.  Harlai,  Archishop  of  Paris,  in- 
formed of  Pasquier's  sentiments,  obliged  him  to 
quit  the  capital.  He  took  refuge  at  Orleans.  Three 
years  afterwards,  he  fled  to  Brussels,  to  avoid  the 
necessity  of  signing  an  absurd  formulary,  in  which 
the  condemnation  of  Jansenism  was  allied  with  the 
renunciation  of  the  natural  philosophy  of  Descartes. 
Here  he  joined  the  great  Arnauld,  and  received  his 
last  instructions.  He  devoted  himself  now  to  the  con- 
tinuation of  his  Reflections;  and  in  1694,  published 
an  edition  which  comprised,  for  the  first  time,  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Jesuits  had  not 
yet  prevailed.  Louis-Antoine  de  Noailles,  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Vares,  and  cardinal,  was  now  Bishop 
of  Chalons-sur-Marne,  and  scrupled  not  to  recommend 
the  book  to  his  diocese.  The  Bishops  of  Limoges,  iVgen, 
Montpellier,  and   Sonez,   afterwards  did  the  same. 

The  celebrated  Bossuet  likewise  joined  in  defending 
the  book,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles  also,  when 
the  Jesuits  publicly  attacked  them.  Bossuet,  in  his 
earlier  life,  seems  to  have  inclined  more  to  the  sen- 
timents of  St.  Augustine  and  Jansenius,  than  to  the 
contrary  notions  of  the  Jesuits.  The  controversy  with 
Fenelon  had  not  yet  soured  his  mind,  nor  his  eleva- 
tion at  court  cooled  his  piety.     An  idea  may  be  formed 


QUESNEL.  179 

of  the  immense  circulation  of  the  Reflections,  and  the 
prodigious  eagerness  with  which  they  were  sought  for, 
from  what  the  Bishop  of  Meaux  observes : — •'  This 
book,  which  contained  at  first  only  the  text  of  the 
Gospels  and  the  Notes  upon  them,  was  received  with 
an  avidity  and  a  desire  of  edification,  which  seemed 
to  revive  in  our  days,  the  primitive  zeal  of  Christians 
for  continual  meditation  on  the  Word  of  God  night 
and  day.  And  when  the  Notes  on  the  rest  of  the 
New  Testament  w^ere  added,  the  complete  work  had 
so  great  a  success,  that  all  the  countries  w^here 
the  French  language  is  known,  and  the  royal  city 
more  particularly,  were  filled  with  it, — the  booksellers 
could  not  meet  the  eagerness  of  the  faithful — un- 
numbered editions  were  published  one  after  another 
and  instantly  taken  off;  so  that  we  may  apply  to  this 
event  what  is  written  in  the  Acts,  that  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  grew  mightily,  and  that  the  number  of  its 
zealous  readers  increased  eveiy  day." 

Such  was  th3  effect  which  the  persecution  and  the 
extraordinary  merit  of  the  w^ork  concurred,  under  the 
blessing  of  God,  to  produce. 

But  further  extremities  were  resorted  to  by  the 
Jesuits.  The  Reflections  had  been  before  the  world 
more  than  twenty  years.  Some  disturbance  had  been 
made,  and  the  Author  had  been  driven  from  his  coun- 
try. But  the  book  had  a  prodigious  sale  ;  influential 
names  were  attached  to  it ;  it  was  exciting  more  and 
more  the  hatred  of  the  human  heart  on  the  one  hand, 
and  gaining  converts  and  readers  almost  innumerable 
on  the  other.  Satan  would  not  let  this  state  of  things 
continue.  The  real  grace  of  God,  though  mixed  with 
error,  was  maintained,  and  maintained  boldly,  in  the 
Reflections ;  man  was  laid  low ;  the  Saviour  was 
exalted ;  the  power  of  fallen  nature  to  recover  itself 
was  denied ;  the  Holy  Ghost  was  honoured  ;  the  world 
and    its   pleasures  were    uncompromisingly  exposed ;   a 


180  QUESNEL. 

new  and  holy  life  was  delineated  and  insisted  on; 
heaven  and  hell  were  plainly  exhibited.  This  was 
enough  :  nothing  could  redeem  such  unpardonable  faults 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Jesuits.  They  could  not  endure 
the  strong  light  thrown  on  the  nature  of  man,  and 
the  one  person  of  the  Saviour.  They  saw  acutely 
enough,  (though  perhaps  Quesnel  did  not,)  that  such 
principles  went  to  undermine  Popery.  They  began 
their  schemes  anew.  They  attempted  to  detach  the 
powerful  defenders  of  Pasquier.  The  Cardinal  de  Noailles 
was  rudely  assailed.  Quesnel,  undaunted,  prosecuted 
the  improvement  of  his  book,  and  wrote  a  prodigious 
number  of  occasional  pamphlets.  He  composed  also 
several  larger  treatises,  on  the  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 
of  Jesus  Christ: — Elevations  of  Heart  towards  Jesus 
Christ  in  His  Passion  and  Death ;  The  Blessedness 
of  the  Christian's  Death ;  Christian  Prayers ;  Prayers 
to  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  for  Young  People  and 
those  who  desire  to  read  the  Word  of  God,  and  especi- 
ally the  Gospel ;  Tradition  of  the  Romish  Church  on 
the  Predestination  of  Saints,  and  on  Efficacious  Grace. 

These  productions  only  augmented  the  rage  of 
his  enemies.  The  impression  of  their  excellence,  as 
works  of  piety,  may  be  judged  of  from  what  the  cele- 
brated Father  de  Tournemine  is  reported  to  have  said — 
"  That  two  pages  of  the  Christian  Prayers  contained 
more  real  unction  than  all  that  had  issued  from  the 
pen  of  the  Jesuits,  not  excepting  Bourdaloue." 

In  the  meantime,  Quesnel  kept  himself  in  privacy 
at  Brussels.  The  Jesuits,  however,  contrived  to  dis- 
cover his  retreat ;  and  persuaded  Philip  V.  of  Spain 
(whose  conscience  they  directed,)  to  send  an  order  to 
the  Bishop  of  Malines  to  arrest  him.  He  was  now 
cast  into  prison  for  the  Name  of  Christ;  and  would 
probably  have  lingered  there  the  rest  of  his  days,  if 
he  had  not  been  rescued  by  a  Spanish  gentleman,  who 
succeeded  in  penetrating  the  walls  of  his  prison,    and 


QUESNEL.  181 

in  freeing  him  from  his  chains.  He  fled  to  Amster- 
dam, under  the  protection  of  the  new  Protestant  States, 
who  had  so  gloriously  succeeded  in  establishing  their 
liberty.  He  was  soon  publicly  condemned  as  a  heretic, 
and  a  contumacious  and  seditious  person,  names  ever 
ready  to  be  attached  to  the  followers  of  the  humble 
Saviour,  especially  under  a  superstitious  and  despotic 
government.  The  court  at  Rome  was  next  appealed 
to,  and  a  decree  of  Clement  XI.,  condemnatory  of  the 
Eeflections,  was  obtained.  Nothing,  however,  could 
stop  the  sale.  The  work  spread  wider  and .  wider. 
Editions  were  multiplied.  All  the  world  were  eager 
to  read  a  work  so  loudly  denounced  by  the  Papal  chair. 
Thus  does  persecution  promote  truth.  Never  would 
■Quesnel's  Reflections  have  been  read  by  one  thousandth 
part  of  those,  who  have  now,  for  a  century  and  a  half, 
been  edified  by  them,  unless  the  Jesuits  had  pursued 
the  book  with  so  bitter  a  hatred. 

An  arret  of  council  was  afterwards  obtained  from 
Louis  IV.  in  order  to  suppress  the  work.  This  was  in 
1711,  after  it  had  been  forty  years  before  the  world. 

At  length  the  Jesuits  urged  the  decrepit  and  super- 
stitious monarch,  through  Madame  de  Maintenon,  to, 
force  the  court  of  Rome  to  enter  into  a  detailed  exami- 
nation of  the  book,  and  thus  settle,  as  they  hoped,  the 
agitated  minds  of  men.  Three  years  were  consumed 
in  details.  At  last,  in  1714,  the  bull,  known  by  its 
first  word  unigenitus,  was  issued,  in  which  101  pro- 
positions were  extracted  from  Quesnel,  and  specifically 
condemned  as  heretical  and  dangerous, — a  step  which, 
like  every  other  since  the  fatal  Council  of  Trent,  (the 
band  and  chain  of  Popish  errors,)  tended  to  separate 
the  Church  of  Rome  more  and  more  widely  from  the 
true  foundation  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  brand  upon  her 
forehead  the  broadest  marks  of  departure  from  the 
faith  of  Christ.  The  spirit  of  Rome  was  never  more 
graphically  delineated,  than  in  her  selecting  all  the 
VOL.  vm.  R 


182  QUESNEL. 

most  express  points  of  the  Gospel,  and  denouncing 
them,  coolly  and  avowedly,  as  heretical  and  erroneous.. 

A  merely  secular  policy  was  so  openly  followed,  both 
by  the  Christian  King,  as  he  was  termed,  and  the 
supple  court  which  yielded  to  his  interference,  that 
the  truth  of  the  doctrines  scarcely  came  into  question. 
It  was  the  policy  of  Rome  which  was  consulted.  The 
Abbe  Renaudot  relates,  that,  on  entering  once  the 
cabinet  of  the  pope,  who  was  fond  of  literary  men,  he 
found  him  reading  Quesnel's  book. — "  This  is  an  extra- 
ordinary performance,"  said  the  pontiff;  "  we  have  no 
one  at  Rome  capable  of  writing  in  this  manner.  I 
wish  I  could  have  the  author  by  me." — Yet  this  very 
man  issued  first  the  decree,  and  then  the  bull,  which 
condemned  the  work.  On  the  feeble  mind  of  Louis, 
superstition  and  the  Jesuits  had  taken  up  their  seat. 
The  prince  who  revoked  the  edict  of  Nantz  in  the 
prime  of  life,  was  not  likely,  in  the  last  stage  of  decrepi' 
tude,  to  resist  the  influence  which  sought  to  overthrow 
an  individual  foe. 

But  it  is  more  lamentable  to  observe,  that  Bossuet 
and  Fenelon  seemed  to  have  joined  in  the  persecution. 
The  former  had,  some  years  before,  defended  the  book ; 
but  he  appears  to  have  shrunk  from  protecting  it  or 
the  author,  when  popularity  took  another  course.  And 
Fenelon,  the  amiable,  the  lovely,  the  pious  Fenelon, 
took  an  active  part  in  hastening  the  condemnation  at 
Rome.  His  correspondence,  lately  published,  demon- 
strates the  interest  he  felt,  and  exhibits  the  commenda- 
tions he  bestowed,  with  his  own  hand,  on  the  divine 
who  drew  up  the  bull.  Haughty  orthodoxy  and  mystical 
devotion  are  thus  found  to  yield  to  the  torrent  of  Papal 
authority,  and  to  lend  their  aid  to  support  a  corrupt 
and  tyrannical  Church. 

The  greatest  difficulty  was  found  in  obtaining  the 
reception  of  the  bull.  Nine  French  Bishops,  assembled 
under  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  determined  to  wait  fo? 


QUICK.  188 

further  information  before  it  was  registered.  It  was 
not  till  1718,  that  it  was  definitely  accepted.  In  the 
meantime,  all  Christendom  rang  with  the  praises  of 
Quesnel's  doctrine.  Surreptitious  editions  were  multi- 
plied ;  and  the  attempt  to  infix  upon  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Gospel  the  character  of  impiety  and  heresy, 
stamped  the  deepest  mark  of  reprobation  on  the  Church 
which  issued  the  condemnation. 

Quesnel  survived  the  publication  of  the  bull  six  years. 
These  he  spent  in  writing  works  of  piety,  and  in  pre- 
paring the  edition  of  the  Reflections,  which,  as  we 
have  observed,  appeared  in  1727,  with  all  the  new 
matter  which  he  had  noted  in  the  margin  of  his  copy. 
Admirable  was  almost  every  additional  thought;  and, 
with  an  undaunted  courage,  did  the  venerable  saint 
persevere  in  the  doctrine  of  the  grace  of  God.  He 
employed  himself,  likewise,  in  forming  Jansenist 
Churches  at  Amsterdam,  where  he  died,  December 
2nd,  1719,  aged  86. 


QUICK,    JOHN. 

John  Quick  was  born  at  Plymouth,  in  1636.  He 
graduated  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  in  1657,  and 
entered  into  holy  orders.  He  officiated  at  Ermington, 
in  Devonshire,  and  at  Kingsb ridge  and  Churchstow, 
in  the  same  county;  but  he  afterwards  removed  to 
Brixton,  whence  he  was  ejected  in  1662.  In  1679, 
he  was  chosen  pastor  of  the  English  Church  at  Middle- 
burgh,  in  Zealand,  whence  he  returned  to  England  in 
1681,  where  he  preached  privately  during  the  remain- 
der of  Charles  II. 's  reign ;  and  afterwards,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  James's  indulgence,  he  formed  a  congregation 
in  Bartholomew-close.     He  died  in  1706. 

Quick  published  :— The  Young  Man's  Claims  to  the 
Sacrament  of  the   Lord's   Supper;    An  Answer  to  that 


184  QUISTOKP. 

Case  of  Conscience,  Whether  it  be  lawful  for  a  man 
to  marry  his  deceased  wife's  sister?  And,  Synodicon 
in  Gallia  Reformata,  or  the  Acts,  Decisions,  Decrees, 
and  Law  of  the  famous  National  Councils  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  France,  &c.,  London,  1692,  fol., 
composed  of  very  interesting  and  authentic  memorials, 
collected,  probably,  while  he  was  in  Zealand.  It  com- 
prises a  history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  France  down  to  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  in  1685. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


QUIEINI,    ATs'GELO    MARIA. 

Angelo  Maria  Quirini  was  born  in  1680,  or  in  1684. 
He  entered  early  into  an  abbey  of  the  Benedictines, 
at  Florence.  Innocent  XIIT.  created  him  Archbishop 
of  Corfu;  and  Benedict  XIII.  raised  him  to  the  car- 
dinalate,  after  having  made  him  Bishop  of  Brescia. 
To  the  library  of  the  Vatican  he  presented  his  own 
collection  of  books.  He  published  : — De  Mosaicse  His- 
torise  Prsestantia ;  Primordia  Corcyrae  ;  ex  antiquissimis 
Monumentis  illustrata;  Lives  of  certain  Bishops  of 
Bresse,  eminent  for  sanctity ;  Life  of  Paul  II. ;  Speci- 
men varise  Literaturse,  quae  in  Urbe  Brixia,  ejusque 
ditione,  paulo  post  incunabula  Typographias  florebat  ; 
An  Account  of  his  Travels ;  Letters  ;  Cardinal  Pole's 
Letters ;  and  an  Edition  of  St.  Ephrem,  He  died  in 
1755. — Moreri. 


QUISTORP,    JOHN. 

John  Quistoep  was  born  at  Rostock  in  1584.  He 
became  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Rostock  in  1614,  and 
in  1645,  Superintendent  of  the  Churches  in  that  District. 
He  was   the    friend    of  Grotius,   upon  whose  death  he 


RABAN.  185 

wrote  a  Latin  letter  to  Calovius,  containing  an  account 
of  the  sickness  and  last  sentiments  of  that  great  man ; 
which  is  inserted  in  the  Bibhotheque  Choisie  of 
Colomies,  and  in  the  Vindiciae  Grotianae,  under  the 
title  of  Grotii  manes.  Professor  Quistorp  died  in  1648, 
about  the  age  of  64.  He  was  the  author  of  Anno- 
tationes  in  omnos  Libros  Biblicos;  Commentarius  in 
Epistolas  Sancti  Pauli ;  Manuductio  ad  Studium  Theo- 
logicum  ;  Articuli  Formulse  Concordias  illustrati ;  besides 
numerous  Sermons,  and  Dissertations  on  a  variety  of 
subjects.  He  had  a  son  of  the  same  name,  who  was 
born  at  Rostock  in  1624,  and  died  in  1669.  He  became 
pastor,  professor  of  divinity,  and  rector  of  the  univer- 
sity in  that  city,  and  he  signalized  himself  by  his 
controversial  writings  against  the   Papists. — Moreri. 


RABAN,    OR    RABANUS    MAURUS    MAGNENTIUS. 

The  History  of  Raban  is  so  connected  with  that  of 
Gotteschalcus,  that  the  reader  is  referred  to  that  article 
for  an  account  of  his  public  life.  He  was  born  in  776, 
and  Mayence  was  his  native  place.  He  was  educated 
at  the  Abbey  of  Fulda,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Tours 
where  he  had  Alcuin  for  his  tutor.  On  his  return  to 
Fulda  in  810,  he  was  appointed  to  teach  grammar  and 
rhetoric,  and  in  822,  he  was  elected  Abbot  of  Fulda. 
In  847,  he  was  raised  to  the  archiepiscopal  see 
of  Mayence.  In  848,  he  summoned  a  council,  in 
which  he  procured  the  condemnation  of  Gotteschalcus 
for  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine  res- 
pecting Predestination  and  Grace,  and  gave  him  up 
into  the  custody  of  Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Rheims. 
Raban  died  in  856.  His  writings  were  so  popular 
that  during  four  centuries,  the  most  eminent  of  the 
Latin  divines  appealed  to  them  as  authority  in  religious 
matters,  and  adopted  almost  universally,  the  sentiments 
R  3 


186  RAINOLDS. 

which  they  contained.  These  writings  consist  of  Com- 
mentaries in  Latin,  on  many  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  and  the  Apocrypha,  which  entitle 
him  to  be  placed  in  the  first  rank  of  those  who  under- 
took to  illustrate  the  Scriptures  by  compilations  from 
the  Fathers  ;  Homilies,  in  Latin,  on  the  Epistles, 
and  Gospels ;  Scripture  Allegories,  in  Latin,  which 
secure  him,  an  eminent  place  among  the  allegorical 
commentators  on  Scripture;  Excerptio  de  Arte  Gram- 
matica  Priscilliani  ;  De  Universo,  Lib.  XX.  sive  Ety- 
raologiarum  Opus  ;  De  Clericorum  Institutione,  et 
Ceremoniis  Ecclesise,  Lib.  III. ;  De  Sacris  Ordinibus, 
Sacramentis  Divinis,  et  Vestimentis  Sacerdotalibus, 
Lib. ;  De  Disciplina  Ecclesiastica,  Lib.  III. ;  Lib.  III. 
De  videndo  Deo,  de  Puritate  Cordis,  de  Modo 
Pcenitentiae ;  De  Anima  et  Virtutibus ;  Martyrolo- 
gium  ;  Poemata  de  diversis  ;  Glossae  Latino-barbaricse ; 
and  De  Inventione  Linguarum  ab  Hebraea  usque 
ad  Theodiscam,  Lib. ;  both  edited  by  Goldast  in 
the  2nd  vol.  of  his  Rerum  Alamannicar.  Script. 
Vet. ;  together  with  numerous  other  pieces,  the  subjects 
of  which  may  be  seen  in  Cave  and  Dupin.  The 
greater  part  of  his  works  were  collected,  and  published 
at  Cologne  in  1627,  by  George  Colvenerius,  in  6  vols, 
fol.  ;  and  other  pieces,  not  in  that  collection,  may  be 
found  in  Baluze's  Miscellanea,  among  Father  Sirmond's 
publications,  and  in  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Collect. 
Concil. — Cave.     Dupin.     Mosheim. 


RAINOLDS,    OR   REYNOLDS,    JOHN 

John  Rainolds  was  born  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Exeter,  in  1549,  and  was  educated  at  Merton  College, 
Oxford,  from  which  college,  he  removed  to  Corpus 
Christi,  in  1563,  where  he  became  a  fellow  in  1566. 
He    was    distinguished    for    his    anti  poppiy  zeal,    and 


RAINOLDS.  187 

having  taken  his  D.D.  degree,  in  1585,  he  was  the 
next  year  appointed  to  a  new  Divinity  lectureship 
instituted  by  Sir  Francis  Walsingham.  In  1593, 
he  was  made  Dean  of  Lincoln,  but  in  1598,  ex- 
changed the  Deanery  for  the  Presidentship  of  Corpus 
Christi    College. 

In  1603,  when  the  Hampton-court  conference  took 
place,  we  find  him  ranged  on  the  Puritan  side;  on 
this  occasion  he  was  their  spokesman,  and  it  may 
therefore  be  necessary  to  give  some  account  of  what  he 
proposed,  as  this  will  enable  the  reader,  in  some 
measure,  to  determine  how  far  the  Puritans  of  the 
following  reign  can  claim  him  as  their  ancestor.  At 
this  conference,  he  proposed,  1.  That  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Church  might  be  preserved  in  purity  according 
to  God's  Word.  2.  That  good  pastors  might  be  planted 
in  all  Churches,  to  preach  the  same.  3.  That  the 
Church-government  might  be  sincerely  administered, 
according  to  God's  Word.  4.  That  the  book  of  Common 
Prayer  might  be  fitted  to  the  more  increase  of  piety. 
With  regard  to  the  first,  he  moved  his  majesty,  that 
the  Book  of  Articles  of  Picligion,  concluded  in  1659, 
might  be  explained  in  places  obscure,  and  enlarged 
where  some  things  were  defective.  For  example,  where- 
as, (Article  XIII.)  the  words  are  these,  "  After  we  have 
received  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  may  depart  from  Grace ;" 
notwithstanding  the  meaning  may  be  sound,  yet  he 
desired,  that  because  they  may  seem  to  be  contrary 
to  the  doctrine  of  God's  Predestination  and  Election 
in  the  17th  Article,  both  these  words  might  be  ex- 
plained with  this  or  the  like  addition,  "  yet  neither 
totally  nor  finally;"  and  also  that  the  nine  assertions 
orthodoxical,  as  he  termed  them,  i.e.  the  Lambeth 
articles,  might  be  inserted  into  that  book  of  articles. 
Secondly,  where  it  is  said  in  the  23rd  Article,  that 
it  is  not  lawful  for  any  man  to  take  upon  him 
the  office  of  preaching,  or  administering  the  Sacraments 


188  RAINOLDS. 

in  the  congregation,  before  he  be  lawfully  called,  Dr. 
Rainolds  took  exception  to  these  words  "in  the  con- 
gregation," as  implying  a  lawfulness  for  any  whatsoever, 
"out  of  the  congregation,"  to  preach  and  administer  the 
Sacraments,  though  he  had  no  lawful  calling  thereunto. 
Thirdly,  in  the  25  th  Article,  these  words  touching 
"  Confirmation,  grown  partly  of  the  corrupt  following 
the  Apostles,"  being  opposite  to  those  in  the  Collect 
of  Confirmation  in  the  Communion-book,  "  upon  whom 
after  the  example  of  the  Apostles,"  argue,  said  he, 
a  contrariety,  each  to  other;  the  first  confessing  Con- 
firmation to  be  a  depraved  imitation  of  the  Apostles ; 
the  second  grounding  it  upon  their  example,  (Acts, 
viii.  19,)  as  if  the  bishop  by  confirming  of  children, 
did  by  imposing  of  hands,  as  the  Apostles  in  those 
places,  give  the  visible  graces  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  therefore  he  desired  that  both  the  contradiction 
might  be  considered,  and  this  ground  of  Confirmation 
examined.  Dr.  Rainolds  afterwards  objected  to  a  defect 
in  the  37th  Article,  wherein,  he  said,  these  words, 
"  The  Bishop  of  Rome  hath  no  authority  in  this  land," 
were  not  sufficient,  unless  it  were  added,  "  nor  ought 
to  have,"  He  next  moved  that  this  proposition,  "the 
intention  of  the  minister  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the 
Sacrament,"  might  be  added  to  the  book  of  Articles,  the 
rather  because  some  in  England  had  preached  it  to 
be  essential.  And  here  again  he  repeated  his  request 
concerning  the  nine  "  orthodoxical  assertions,"  con- 
cluded at  Lambeth.  He  then  complained  that  the 
Catechism  in  the  Common  Prayer-book  was  too  brief; 
for  which  reason,  one  by  Nowell,  late  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  was  added,  and  that  too  long  for  young  novices 
to  learn  by  heart.  He  requested,  therefore,  that  one 
uniform  Catechism  might  be  made,  which,  and  none 
other,  might  be  generally  received.  He  next  took 
notice  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
contempt  of  his   majesty's   proclamation  for   reforming 


RAINOLDS.  189 

that  abuse ;  and  desired  some  stronger  remedy  might 
be  applied.  His  next  request  was  for  a  new  translation 
of  the  Bible,  because  those  which  were  allowed  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  were  cormpt 
and  not  answerable  to  the  original ;  of  which  he  gave 
three  instances.  He  then  desired  his  majesty,  that 
unlawful  and  seditious  books  might  be  suppressed,  at 
least  restrained,  and  imparted  to  a  few.  He  proceeded 
now  to  the  second  point,  and  desired  that  learned 
ministers  might  be  planted  in  every  parish.  He  next 
went  on  to  the  fourth  point,  relating  to  the  Common 
Prayer,  and  complained  of  the  imposing  subscription, 
since  it  was  a  great  impediment  to  a  learned  ministiy; 
and  intreated,  "  that  it  might  not  be  exacted  as  for- 
merly, for  which  many  good  men  were  kept  out, 
others  removed,  and  many  disquieted.  To  subscribe 
according  to  the  statutes  of  the  realm,  namely  to 
the  articles  of  religion,  and  the  king's  supremacy,  they 
were  not  unwilling.  Their  reason  of  their  backward- 
ness to  subscribe  otherwise  was,  first,  the  books 
Apocryphal,  which  the  Common  Prayer  enjoined  to 
be  read  in  the  Church,  albeit  there  are,  in  some  of 
those  chapters  appointed,  manifest  errors,  directly 
repugnant  to  the  Scriptures.  The  next  scruple  against 
subscription  was,  that  in  the  Common  Prayer,  it  is 
twice  set  down,  '  Jesus  said  to  His  Disciples,'  when 
as  by  the  text  original  it  is  plain,  that  he  spoke 
to  the  Pharisees.  The  third  objection  against  sub- 
scription, were,  '  Interrogatories  in  Baptism,'  pro- 
pounded to  infants,"  Dr.  Rainolds  owned  "the  use 
of  the  Cross  to  have  been  ever  since  the  Apostles' 
time ;  but  this  was  the  difficulty,  to  prove  it  of  that 
ancient  use  in  Baptism."  He  afterwards  took  exception 
at  those  words  in  the  Office  of  Matrimony,  "  With  my 
body  I  thee  worship  ;"  and  objected  against  the  Church- 
ing of  women  under  the  name  of  Purification.  Under 
the  third   general  head,  touching    Discipline,    he  ^  took 


190  -  RAINOLDS. 

exception  to  the  committiDg  of  ecclesiastical  censures 
to  lay-chancellors.  "  His  reason  was,  that  the  statute 
made  in  King  Henry's  time  for  their  authority  that 
way  was  abrogated  in  Queen  Mary's  time,  and  not 
revived  in  the  late  queen's  days,  and  abridged  by  the 
bishops  themselves,  1571,  ordering  that  the  said  lay- 
chancellors  should  not  excommunicate  in  matters  of 
correction,  and  anno  1584  and  1589,  not  in  matters  of 
instance,  but  to  be  done  only  by  them  who  had  the 
power  of  the  keys."  He  then  desired,  that  according 
to  certain  provincial  constitutions,  they  of  the  clergy 
might  have  meetings,  once  every  three  weeks ;  first,  in 
rural  deaneries,  and  therein,  to  have  the  liberty  of  pro- 
phesying, according  as  Archbishop  Grindal  and  other 
bishops  desired  of  her  late  majesty.  Secondly,  that 
such  things  as  could  not  be  resolved  upon  there,  might 
be  referred  from  thence  to  the  episcopal  synods, 
where  the  bishop  with  his  presbyteri  should,  deter- 
mine all  such  points  as  before  could  not  be 
decided. 

Notwithstanding  our  author's  conduct  at  this 
conference.  Dr.  Simon  Patrick  observes,  that  he 
professed  himself  a  conformist  to  the  Church  of 
England,  and  died  so.  He  remarks  that  Dr.  Richard 
Crakanthorp  tells  the  Archbishop  of  Spalato,  that 
the  doctor  was  no  Puritan,  (as  the  archbishop  called 
him).  "  For  first,  he  professed  that  he  appeared 
unwillingly  in  the  cause  at  Hampton-court,  and 
merely  in  obedience  to  the  king's  command.  And 
then  he  spake  not  one  word  there  against  the 
hierarchy.  Nay,  he  acknowledged  it  to  be  consonant 
to  the  Word  of  God,  in  his  conference  with  Hart. 
And  in  an  answer  to  Sanders's  book  of  the  '  Schism 
of  England'  (which  is  in  the  archbishop's  library,) 
he  professes  that  he  approves  of  the  book  of 
'  consecrating  and  ordering  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons.'      He    was   also  a   strict   observer  of  all  the 


RANDOLPH.  191 

orders  of  the  church  and  university,  both  in  pubHc 
and  his  own  college ;  wearing  the  square  cap  and 
surplice,  kneeling  at  the  Sacrament,  and  he  himself 
commemorating  their  benefactors  at  the  time  their 
statutes  appointed,  and  reading  that  chapter  of  Eccle- 
siasticus,  which  is  on  such  occasions  used.  In  a  letter 
also  of  his,  to  Archbishop  Bancroft  (then  in  Dr. 
Crakenthorp's  hands,)  he  professes  himself  conformable 
to  the  Church  of  England,  '  willingly,  and  from  his 
heart,'  his  conscience  admonishing  him  so  to  be. 
And  thus  he  remained  persuaded  to  his  last  breath, 
desiring  to  receive  absolution,  according  to  the  manner 
prescribed  in  our  liturgy,  when  he  lay  on  his  death- 
bed ;  which  he  did  from  Dr.  Holland,  the  king's 
professor  in  Oxford,  kissing  his  hand  in  token  of  his 
love  and  joy,  and  within  a  few  hours  after  resigned, 
up   his  soul   to  God." 

Wood  says,  perhaps  justly,  that  the  "  best  matter" 
produced  by  this  Hampton-court  conference,  was  the 
new  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  is  now  the 
authorized  edition.  It  was  begun  in  1604,  by  forty- 
seven  divines  of  Westminster  and  the  two  universities. 
Dr.  Rainolds  had  too  much  reputation  as  a  Greek 
and  Hebrew  scholar  to  be  omitted  from  this  list.  Some 
of  the  prophets  appear  to  have  been  the  portion 
allotted  to  him,  but  his  growing  infirmities  did  not, 
it  is  thought,  permit  him  to  do  much.  The  Oxford 
translators  however  used  to  meet  at  his  lodging  once 
a  week,  and  compared  what  they  had  done  in  his 
company.  During  this  undertaking  he  was  seized 
with  the  consumption  of  which  he  died,  May  21,  1607, 
in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age. — Wood.  Fuller. 
Gen.  Diet, 


EANDOLPH,    THOMAS. 

Thomas    Randolph    was     born    in    1702,    at   Canter- 


192  READING. 

bury,  and  educated  at  the  King's  School  there,  and 
at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  of  which  he 
became  fellow  in  1723.  Dr.  Potter,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  collated  him  to  the  united  vicarages 
of  Perham  and  Waltham  in  Kent,  In  1744,  he 
published,  The  Christian's  Faith,  a  rational  assent, 
in  answer  to  the  deistical  treatise,  entitled,  Christianity 
not  founded  on  Argument.  In  1746,  his  patron,  the 
archbishop,  collated  him  to  the  Rectory  of  Saltwood, 
with  the  Chapel  of  Hythe  annexed  ;  and  he  was  soon 
after  chosen  President  of  Corpus  Christi  College.  In 
1753,  he  published: — The  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  in 
answer  to  the  Essay  on  Spirit.  From  1756  to  1759, 
he  held  the  office  of  vice-chancellor;  and  in  1768,  he 
was  elected  to  the  Margaret  professorship  of  divinity, 
on  the  death  of  Dr.  Jenner.  In  the  preceding  year, 
he  had  been  promoted  to  the  Arch-deaconry  of 
Oxford.  His  last  work  was  on  the  Citations  from 
the  Old  Testament  in  the  New.  He  died  in  1783. 
In  1784,  a  collection  of  his  principal  works  was 
published  under  the  title  of,  A  View  of  our  Blessed 
Saviour's  Ministry,  and  the  proofs  of  His  Divine 
Mission  arising  from  thence. — Life  prefixed  to  his 
Works. 


READING,    JOHN. 

John  Reading  was  born  in  Buckinghamshire,  in 
1588,  and  was  educated  first  at  Magdalen  Hall, 
and  then  at  St.  Alban  Hall,  Oxford.  In  1616,  he 
was  made  minister  of  St.  Mary's,  Dover,  and  was 
afterwards  appointed  one  of  the  chaplains  of  Charles  I. 
He  was  one  of  those  doctrinal  Puritans,  who  opposed, 
as  much  as  any  Churchman  of  opposite  religious 
sentiments,  the  violent  proceedings  of  the  authors 
of  the  rebellion,   and  had  exposed    them   so   frequently 


READING.  193 

in  his  sermons,  that  he  was  soon  marked  out  for 
vengeance.  In  April,  1642,  his  library  at  Dover 
was  plundered,  and  in  November  following,  he  was 
dragged  from  his  house  by  the  soldiers,  and  impri- 
soned for  one  year  and  seven  months.  In  January 
of  the  above  mentioned  year,  Archbishop  Laud, 
then  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  had,  at  his  majesty's 
request,  bestowed  on  him  the  living  of  Chartham 
in  Kent ;  but  from  that  the  usurping  party  took 
care  he  should  receive  no  advantage.  He  was  also 
with  as  little  effect,  made  prebendary  of  Canterbury. 
In  1644,  however,  Sir  William  Brockman  gave  him 
the  living  of  Cheriton  in  Kent,  which  he  was  not 
only  allowed  to  keep,  but  was  likewise  appointed  by 
the  assembly  of  divines,  to  be  one  of  the  nine 
divines  who  were  to  write  Annotations  on  the  New 
Testament  for  the  work  afterwards  published,  and 
known   by  the  title   of  the  "Assembly's   Annotations." 

His  sufferings  however,  were  not  yet  at  an  end ; 
for  soon  after  this  apparent  favour,  upon  a  suspicion 
that  he  was  concerned  in  a  plot  for  the  seizing  of 
Dover  Castle,  he  was  apprehended  and  carried  to 
Leeds  Castle,  where  he  was  imprisoned  for  some  time. 
In  March,  1650,  he  held  a  public  disputation  in  Folk- 
stone  Church  with  Fisher,  an  Anabaptist,  who  argued 
against  the  necessity  of  ordination,  and  quoted  as 
his  authority,  some  passage  in  Bishop  Taylor's 
"  Discourse  of  the  liberty  of  Prophesying,"  which 
obliged  Mr.  Heading  to  write  a  tract  on  the  subject. 
On  the  restoration,  when  Charles  II.  landed  at  Dover, 
Mr.  Reading  was  deputed  by  the  corporation  to 
address  his  majesty,  and  present  him  with  a  large 
Bible  with  gold  clasps,  in  their  name.  He  was  now 
replaced  in  the  Prebend  of  Canterbury,  and  the  living 
of  Chartham.  Here  he  died,  October  26,  1667,  and 
was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  the  church. 

He  published  several  occasional  sermons  from  1623  to 

VOL     VIII.  s 


194  EEDMAYNE. 

J  663;  and  1.  Brief  instructions  concerning  the  Holy 
Sacrament,  London,  1645,  8vo.  2.  A  Guide  to  the 
holy  City,  Oxon.  1651,  4to.  3.  An  Antidote  to  Anabap- 
tism,  1654,  4to.  It  was  in  this  he  animadverted  on 
those  passages  of  Bishop  Taylor's  Discourse,  which 
seemed  to  favour  irregular  preaching.  4.  An  Evening 
Sacrifice,  or  Prayers  for  a  family  in  these  times  of 
calamity.  5.  Speech  made  before  King  Charles  II. 
on  the  shore,  when  he  landed  at  Dover,  &c.,  1660, 
single  sheet,  with  verses.  Mr.  Reading  left  several 
manuscripts,  partly  in  the  hands  of  Basil  Kennet, 
whence  they  passed  to  his  son,  White  Kennet. — Wood. 
Watkins.   Fuller. 


REDMAN,    or    REDMAYNE,    JOHN. 

John  Redman,  or  Redmatne,  was  born  in  Yorkshire, 
in  1499,  and  was  educated  at  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Oxford,  and  afterwards  at  Paris.  On  returning  to 
England  he  settled  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
of  which  he  became  a  fellow  in  1521. 

For  above  twenty  years  he  carefully  applied  himself 
to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  always  began 
and  ended  his  studies  with  humble  and  earnest  prayer 
to  Almighty  God,  to  guide  him  into  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  and  to  preserve  him  from  all  dangerous  errors 
and  delusions.  His  prayers  found  access  to  the  throne 
of  grace ;  and  God  opened  his  eyes  to  discern  those 
errors  which  he  had  been  led  into  by  the  prejudice  of 
education ;  and  when  the  truth  was  thus  discovered 
to  him,  he  embraced  it  in  the  love  thereof,  and  con- 
tinued a  stedfast  professor,  and  zealous  defender  of  it, 
unto  the  end. 

As  he  found  transubstantiation  to  be  the  received 
doctrine,  he  was  for  som^  time  very  much  disturbed, 
whenever  he  heard  it  disputed  and  contradicted;  and 


REDMAYNE.  195 

taking  up  a  resolution  to  write  in  defence  of  it,  he 
carefully  examined  the  Scriptures,  and  made  a  diligent 
search  into  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  for  materials 
towards  his  w^ork.  The  result  of  his  inquiry  was,  that 
he  found  this  doctrine  to  have  no  foundation  in  Scrip- 
ture and  the  purest  antiquity,  but  to  be  an  invention 
of  the  schoolmen  in  the  dark  and  later  ages,  and  clogged 
with  infinite  contradictions,  and  inexplicable  absurdities. 
Upon  this,  his  zeal  for  it  expired  at  once,  and  he 
preached  in  the  university  against  it,  and  against  the 
superstitious  custom  of  carrying  the  Host  in  pro- 
cession. 

He  was  at  first  a  sti^nuous  opposer  of  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone,  because  he  feared  it 
destroyed  the  necessity  of  good  works,  and  saw  how 
it  had  been  perverted  by  some  of  the  Anabaptists,  to 
build  most  detestable  and  blasphemous  heresies  upon. 
But  when  he  had  carefully  perused  the  writings  of  our 
reformed  divines  on  that  subject,  and  observed  with  what 
exactness  they  had  stated  the  doctrine  of  justification, 
and  guarded  it  from  the  least  tendency  to  any  of  those 
pernicious  consequences,  he  declared  himself  convinced, 
and  confessed  his  conviction  to  King  Henry,  whose 
chaplain   he  then  was. 

In  1537,  he  commenced  doctor  of  divinity,  and  about 
that  time  was  chosen  orator  of  the  university.  In  154U, 
he  was  made  Prebendary  of  Westminster,  of  which 
church  he  is  by  several  of  our  historians  said  to  have 
been  dean  ;  but  upon  careful  examination,  this  seems 
to  be  a  mistake.  He  was  for  some  time  Master  of 
King's  Hall;  and  in  1546,  on  the  dissolution  of  that 
Hall,  was  advanced  to  be  the'*first  Master  of  Trinity 
(JoUege,  by  the  Charter  of  erection.  In  this  station  he 
was  a  great  promoter  of  the  exact  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  tongues  ;  and  was  so  exceeding  liberal  to  poor 
students,  that  there  were  few  industrious  men  in  that 
university,  who   did  not  receive  a  comfortable   support 


196  REDMAYNE. 

from  his  bounty.  He  was  very  kind  in  particular  to 
that  learned  foreigner,  Martin  Bucer,  notwithstanding 
their  disagreement  in  some  points  of  religion,  in  which 
he  thought  Bucer's  zeal  against  Popery  carried  him 
into  the  contrary  extreme  ;  and  in  a  sermon  which  he 
preached  at  his  funeral,  did  justice  to  his  memory,  and 
detracted  nothing  from  his  due  praise. 

When  he  was  taken  ill  of  his  last  sickness  at  West- 
minster, finding  himself  decay  apace,  he  sent  for  Dr. 
Alexander  Nowell,  afterwards  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and 
some  other  of  the  reformed  divines  ;  and  to  prevent  any 
misrepresentations  after  his  death,  made  before  them, 
a  large  declaration  of  his  judgment  concerning  the  chief 
controversies  of  those  times,  which  he  desired  them  to 
attest.  The  most  remarkable  particulars  of  which  were 
these  : — 

1.  That  Christ  is  really  present  in  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Altar,  in  an  ineffable  manner,  to  those  who  receive 
it  worthily  ;  that  we  receive  Him  in  our  minds  and  souls 
by  faith ;  and  that  to  speak  otherwise,  savours  of  the 
gross  error  of  the  Capernaites. 

2.  That  the  wicked  are  not  partakers  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ,  but  that  they  receive  the  outward  Sacra- 
ment only. 

3.  That  nothing  which  is  seen,  or  perceived  by  any 
outward  sense,  in  the  Sacrament,  is  to  be  worshipped  ; 
and  that  at  the  Holy  Supper  we  must  \vorship  Christ  in 
heaven,  but  not  the  visible  elements. 

4.  That  purgatory,  as  taught  by  the  schoolmen,  was 
an  ungodly  and  pernicious  doctrine,  and  that  there  was 
no  such  place. 

5.  That  offering  masses  is  an  irreligious,  unprofitable, 
and  superstitious  usage. 

6.  That  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  is  not  prohibited 
by  any  law  of  Christ. 

7.  That  to  build  our  faith  on  the  consent  of  the  pre- 


KEDMAYNE.  197 

sent  Church,  is  but  a  weak  and  sandy  foundation ;  and 
that  the  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule  of  faith. 

8.  That  the  See  of  Rome  had  in  many  things  swerved 
from  God's  true  religion  and  worship,  and  was  so  griev- 
ously and  horribly  stained  and  polluted,  that  without 
speedy  repentance,  God's  righteous  vengeance  would 
suddenly  overtake  and  consume  it. 

This  declaration  is  a  full  proof,  that  Strype  is 
under  a  great  mistake,  in  asserting  that  this  illustrious 
ornament  of  our  Reformed  Church  died  in  the  Roman 
Communion. 

When  Dr.  Redmayne  had  finished  his  declaration,  he 
discoursed  more  largely  on  some  of  these  points,  and 
that  in  so  pathetic  and  affecting  a  manner,  that  Dr. 
Young,  one  of  the  divines  there  present,  who  was  not 
then  entirely  come  otf  from  the  prejudices  of  his  educa- 
tion, declared  that  he  was  so  moved  and  convinced,  that 
he  now  doubted  of  the  truth  of  some  things  for  which 
before  he  would  have  suffered  martyrdom. 

After  this,  Dr.  Redmayne's  whole  discourse  was  of  the 
joys  of  heaven,  the  last  judgment,  and  of  our  redemption 
through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  Whom  he 
earnestly  longed  to  be.  He  would  often,  with  tears  of 
joy,  praise  and  extol  the  ineffable  love  of  our  gracious 
Redeemer  to  us  miserable  sinners;  and  exhorted  his 
friends  to  be  always  prepared  for  Christ's  coming,  to 
love  one  another,  to  beware  of  this  corrupt  world,  and 
entirely  to  wean  their  affections  from  its  transitory- 
glories,  and  deceitful  pleasures.  He  bore  his  sickness 
with  the  greatest  patience,  and  a  perfect  resignation  to 
the  will  of  God,  whether  for  life  or  death,  yet  he  wished 
rather,  if  it  were  God's  blessed  will,  to  be  dissolved  and 
to  be  with  Christ,  and  to  be  delivered  from  the  troubles 
and  temptations  of  this  miserable  world.  He  practised, 
to  the  utmost  perfection,  all  those  virtues  and  graees, 
which  he  was  wont  to  recommend  to  others  in  this 
condition ;  and  when  be  found  his  end  approaching,  he 


198  REGIUS; 

broke  out  into  this  fervent  prayer : — "  Thy  will,  O 
blessed  Lord,  be  fulfilled  ;  0  God  of  all  comfort,  give 
me  grace  to  have  comfort  in  Thee,  and  to  have  m)' 
mind  wholly  fixed  on  Thee."  And  after  a  short  pause, 
he  added,  "  God  grant  us  grace,  that  we  have  a  true 
understanding  of  His  Word,  the  true  use  of  His  Sacra- 
ments, and  ever  preach  and  maintain  the  truth,  to  the 
glory  of  His  most  holy  Name."  Then  he  offered  up 
another  short  petition  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and 
soon  after  resigned  his  pious  and  holy  soul  to  God. 
He  died  in  November,  1551,  in  the  fifty-second  year 
of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the  north  isle  of  West- 
minster Abbey. 

He  wrote  a  Latin  Treatise  of  Justification,  and  ano- 
ther concerning  Grace,  which  were  published  after  his 
death. — Doivnes. 


EEGIUS,    URBAN. 

Urban  Regius,  properly  called  Le  Roi,  was  born  at 
Langenargen,  and  studied  at  Lindau,  Fribourg,  Basle, 
and  Ingoldstadt.  At  the  latter  place,  he  was  under  the 
tuition  of  Eck.  (See  his  Life.)  Here  Regius  read 
lectures,  but  unfortunately  was  induced  to  superintend 
the  education  of  some  j^ouths  of  noble  families,  and 
provided  them  with  books  and  other  necessaries,  which 
their  parents  neglecting  to  pay,  he  was  obliged  to  give 
up  what  little  property  he  had  for  the  benefit  of  his 
creditors,  and  in  despair  of  assistance  to  carry  on  his 
studies,  enlisted  as  a  common  soldier.  In  this  plight, 
however,  he  happened  to  be  discovered  by  Eck,  who 
procured  his  discharge,  and  prevailed  on  the  parents 
of  his  pupils  to  discharge  all  arrears  due  to  him. 

Urban  then  returned  to  his  studies,  and  became  so 
distinguished,  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  passing 
through      Ingoldstadt,     made     him      his     poct-laureat 


REGIUS.  199 

and  orator ;  and  he  was  afterwards  made  professor  of 
poetry  and  oratory  in  that  university.  But,  having 
applied  to  the  study  of  divinity,  he  engaged  with  warmth 
and  assiduity  in  the  controversies  of  the  times,  particu- 
larly in  that  between  Luther  and  Eck,  in  which  he 
inclined  to  Luther ;  but  unwilling  to  give  personal 
offence  to  his  preceptor  and  good  friend  Eck,  he  left 
Ingoldstadt '  and  went  to  Augsburg,  where,  at  the 
importunity  of  the  magistrates  and  citizens,  he  under- 
took the  government  of  the  Church.  Here  he  departed 
farther  and  farther  from  the  errors  of  Popery,  and 
soon  joined  with  Luther  in  preaching  against  them. 
In  his  opinion,  however,  concerning  the  Lord's  Supper 
and  original  sin,  he  sided,  for  a  time,  with  Zuinglius, 
in  consequence  of  a  correspondence  in  which  that  refor- 
mer explained  to  him  the  grounds  of  his  belief.  In  his 
preaching  against  errors  so  general  as  those  of  Popery 
then  were,  he  met  with  much  opposition,  but  appears  to 
have  been  supported  by  some  of  the  principal  citizens, 
one  of  whom  bestowed  on  him  his  daughter,  by  whom 
he  had  thirteen  children.  Eck,  both  by  letters  and  by 
the  intervention  of  friends,  endeavoured  to  gain  him 
back  to  the  Church,  but  his  principles  were  fixed,  and 
he  resisted  both  flatteries  and  promises. 

In  1530,  there  was  a  Diet  held  at  Augsburg,  at 
which  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  present,  who  pre- 
vailed on  Piegius  to  go  to  Lunenburg  in  his  dominions, 
to  take  care  of  the  Church  there.  The  duke  highly 
esteemed  him,  and  declared  to  the  people  of  Augsburg, 
who  petitioned  for  his  return,  that  he  would  as  soon 
part  with  his  eyes  as  with  Regius,  and  made  him  chief 
pastor  of  all  the  Churches  in  his  dominions,  with  an 
ample  and  liberal  salary.  Here  he  passed  the  greater 
part  of  a  useful  and  active  life  in  preaching,  writing, 
and  religious  conferences.  He  died  May  23rd,  1541, 
when  on  a  journey  with  the  Duke  to  Haguenau  ;  the 
place  of  his  death  is  said  to  be  Zell ;  but  we  have  no 


OOO  EEMIGIUS. 

account  of  his  age.  He  had  often  wished  that  he  might 
die  a  sudden  and  eas}^  death,  which  happened  to  be 
the  case.  His  works  were  collected  in  3  vols.,  folio. 
The  first  two  contain  the  pieces  he  published  in  Latin, 
the  other  his  German  compositions.  The  last  volume 
was  afterwards  translated  into  Latin,  and  published 
under  the  title  of  "  Vita  et  Opera  Urbani  Regii,  reddita 
per  Ernest.  Regium,"  Norib.  1562.  Some  of  his  pieces 
were  translated  in  the  16th  century  into  English,  as 
"  The  Sermon  which  Christ  made  on  His  way  to  Emmaus 
&c."  1578,  4to;  "A  Declaration  of  the  Twelve  Articles 
of  the  Christen  Faythe,  &c."  1548;  "An  Instruccyon 
of  Christen  Fayth,  &c."  15b8,  translated  by  Fox  the 
martyrologist ;  "  The  Olde  Learnyng  and  the  New 
compared,  &c."  1548,  8vo;  "Exposition  on  the  87th 
Psalm,"  1594,  8vo ;  "A  Homily  of  the  good  and  evil 
Angell,  &c."  1590,  8vo,  and  others.  Besides  what  are 
included  in  the  three  volumes  mentioned  above,  John 
Freder  of  Pomerania  published,  after  the  author's  death, 
a  work  of  his,  entitled  "  Loci  Theologici  ex  patribus 
et  scholasticis  neotericisque  collecti." 


EEMIGIUS. 

Remigius  was  a  native  of  Gaul,  and  was  made  grand 
almoner  to  the  Emperor  Lotharius.  About  853  or 
854,  upon  the  death  of  Amolo,  that  monarch  promoted 
him  to  the  archiepiscopal  See  of  Lyons.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  strenuous  and  able  defenders  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Gotteschalchus,  or  rather  of  St.  Augustine,  on 
the  subjects  of  Grace  and  Predestination,  among  the 
contemporaries  of  that  monk.  In  855,  he  presided  in  the 
Council  at  Valence,  which  confirmed  that  doctrine,  and 
passed  a  sentence  of  condemnation  on  the  canons 
against  Gotteschalchus,  ( see  his  life,)  which  had  been 
decreed  by  the  Council  of  Quiercy  six  years  before.    In 


RENNIGER.  201 

859,  he  presided  in  a  Synod  at  Langres,  which  confirmed 
the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Valence,  and  condemned 
the  propositions  of  John  Scotus  Erigena,  relating  to 
Predestination.  He  died  in  875.  Such  of  his  works 
as  are  extant,  may  be  found  in  the  fifteenth  vokune 
of  the  Bibl.  Patr.,  and  the  first  Yolume  of  Maguin's 
Collect.  Script,  de  Prsedestinat.  et  Gratia.  To  Remigius, 
Archbishop  Usher  has  attributed  that  Commentary 
upon  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  which  is  given  with 
his  name  in  the  Bibl.  Patr.,  but  which  ought  rather 
to  be  ascribed  to  Haymo. 


EEMIGIUS    OF   AUXERRE. 

Remigius  of  Auxeree  derived  his  surname  from  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Germain  at  Auxerre,  where  he  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  schools  belonging  to  his  monastery. 
About  822,  he  was  called  to  Rheims  by  Foulques,  the 
successor  of  Hincmar  in  that  see,  who  gave  him  the 
direction  of  the  literary  seminary  which  he  had  founded 
in  his  metropolitan  city.  He  is  said  to  have  afterwards 
gone  to  Paris,  where  he  opened  the  first  public  school 
in  that  city.  He  died  about  900.  He  was  the  author 
of  Commentarius  in  omnes  Davidis  Psalmos,  which 
was  published  at  Cologne  in  1536,  and  chiefly  consists 
of  the  opinions  and  explications  of  St.  Ambrose,  St. 
Augustine,  and  Cassiodorus,  reduced  into  one  mass  ; 
Enarratio  in  posteriores  XT.  minores  Prophetas,  pub- 
lished at  Antwerp  in  1545,  with  the  Commentaries  of 
Oecumenius  upon  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  their 
Epistles,  and  those  of  Arethas  upon  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation ;  and  Expositio  Missse. 


RENNIGER,    MICHAEL. 

Michael  Renniger  was  a  native  of  Hampshire,  where 


202  REYNOLDS. 

he  was  born  in  1529.  He  was  a  fellow  of  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  whence  he  was  expelled  by  Bishop 
Gardiner,  on  account  of  his  attachment  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation.  He  was  an  exile  for  religion 
in  Mary's  reign  and  resided  chiefly  at  Strasburg,  On 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  he  was  made  one  of  her 
chaplains,  and  proved  a  zealous  champion  for  the 
Reformation.  He  became  a  prebendary  of  Winchester, 
and  obtained  the  Rectory  of  Crawley,  near  that  city. 
In  1567,  he  was  installed  precentor  and  prebendary 
of  Lincoln.  In  1573,  he  took  his  degrees  in  divinity, 
and  in  1575,  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Winchester. 
In  1583,  he  had  the  prebend  of  Reculverland,  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Paul,  London.  He  died  in  1609. 
His  works  are : — Carmina  in  mortem  duorum  Fra- 
trum  Suffolciensium,  Henrici  et  Caroli  Brandon;  De 
Pii  V.  et  Gregorii  XIII.  furoribus  contra  Elizabe- 
tham  Reginam  Anglias ;  An  Exhortation  to  True 
Love,  Loyalty,  and  Fidelity  to  Her  Majesty ;  Syn- 
tagma hortationum  ad  Jacobem  Regem  Anglise.  He 
also  translated  from  Latin  into  English,  Bishop 
Poynet's  Apology  or  Defence  of  Priests'  Marriages. — 
Strype. 


REYNOLDS,    EDWARD. 

Edward  Reynolds  was  born  of  humble  parents,  at 
Southampton,  in  the  year  1599.  His  education  began 
in  the  Free  Grammar  School  of  his  native  town.  At 
the  usual  age,  he  was  removed  to  Merton  College? 
Oxford,  of  which  society,  he  became  a  postmaster  in 
1615,  and  in  1620,  a  probationed  fellow.  The  latter 
preferment  he  obtained  by  his  proficiency  in  the 
Greek  language,  and  his  eminent  talents  as  a  dis- 
putant and  orator.  After  he  had  taken  the  degree  of 
master  of    arts,    he    entered    into    orders,    and    was 


REYNOLDS.  203 

chosen  preacher  to  the  honourable  society  of  Lincoln's 
Inn.  He  was  also  preferred  to  the  Rectory  of  Brauns- 
ton,    in  Northamptonshire. 

When  the  unhappy  differences  between  Charles 
the  First  and  his  parliament,  issued  in  the  civil 
war  which  for  many  years  afflicted  the  nation,  Mr. 
Reynolds  joined  the  Presbyterian  party,  and  in  1643, 
was  appointed  one  of  the  assembly  of  divines  which 
met  at  Westminster,  avowedly  to  settle  the  contro- 
versies that  distracted  the  people,  but  in  fact  to 
establish  Presbyterianism  on  the  ruins  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  During  this  period,  he  was  a  frequent 
preacher  before  the  long  parliament,  and  stood  so 
high  in  their  estimation,  that  he  was  named  one  of 
the  seven  divines,  who  were  sent  to  Oxford  with 
authority  to  supersede  the  preachers  appointed  by  the 
university,  and  to  bring  that  city  to  a  more  favour- 
able view  of  the  parliamentary  cause.  In  the  following 
year  he  became  one  of  the  visitors  of  the  university 
and  soon  afterwards,  he  was  chosen  vice-chancellor, 
and,  by  a  mandate  from  the  parliament,  was  created 
doctor  in  divinity.  His  next  promotion  was  to  the 
Deanery  of  Christ   Church. 

Hitherto  Dr.  Reynolds  had  acted  with  the  adherents 
of  the  parliament,  but  he  was  neither  their  servile, 
nor  an  unprincipled  instrument.  When  called  on  to 
subscribe  to  the  engagement,  "to  be  true  and  faith- 
ful to  the  commonwealth  of  England,  without  a 
king  and  a  house  of  lords,"  he  refused  to  give  the 
disloyal  pledge,  and  was  consequently  deprived  of  his 
recently  acquired  honour.  From  this  time,  he  appears 
to  have  resided  chiefly  in  London,  where,  as  vicar 
of  St.  Lawrence,  Jewry,  he  faithfully  discharged  his 
ministerial  duties,  and  though  neglected  by  the 
independent  rulers  of  the  state,  was  very  highly 
esteemed  by  his  Presbyterian  brethren,  and  by  the 
country   at  large. 


•204  RIBADENEIRA. 

When  General  Monk  marched  his  troops  to  Lon- 
don, with  the  design  of  establishing  a  free  parliament 
and  restoring  the  monarchical  government,  Dr.  Rey- 
nolds entered  heartily  into  his  views,  and  used  his 
interest,  which  was  now  very  considerable,  to  bring 
about  the  desired  change.  After  the  vote  for  recalling 
the  king,  had  passed  the  new  parliament,  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  deputed  a  number  of  their  body 
to  wait  on  his  majesty  in  Holland.  Of  this  number 
Dr.  Reynolds  was  one,  and  his  zeal  in  the  royal 
cause  was  not  forgotten.  On  the  king's  arrival  in 
England,  he  was  appointed  one  of  his  chaplains, 
and  in  1660,  w^as  elected  warden  of  Merton  College, 
and  consecrated  Bishop  of  Norwich.  As  soon  as 
the  government  was  peaceably  settled,  he  retired  to 
his  diocese,  in  which  he  constantly  resided  till  his 
death,  which  took  place  at  Norwich,  in  1676,  in  the 
seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age. — Life  prefixed  to 
Sermons. 


EIBADENEIRA,     PETER. 

Peter  Ribadeneira  was  born  at  Toledo  in  1527, 
and  in  1540,  he  became  a  favourite  disciple  of  the 
founder  of  the  Jesuits,  {see  Life  of  Loyola.)  In 
1542,  he  studied  at  Paris,  and  was  afterwards  em- 
ployed in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Jesuits,  in 
various  parts  of  Europe.  He  accompanied  the  Duke 
of  Feria  to  England  in  1558  ;  and  his  inquiries 
here,  or  what  he  made  subsequently,  encouraged  him 
to  publish  a  treatise,  On  the  English  Schism,  1594, 
8vo.  He  is,  however,  chiefly  known  for  his  Lives  of 
various  Saints  and  Jesuits,  and  as  the  founder  of 
that  biography  of  the  Jesuits,  which  Alegambe  and 
others  afterwards  improved  into  a  work  of  some 
importance.     One    of    his    principal    Lives,    published 


RICCA.  305 

separately,  is  that  of  the  founder,  St.  Ignatius  de 
Loyola.  His  Lives  of  the  Saints,  ( Ignatius  Loyola, 
Francis  Borgia,  Lainez,  Salmeron,  &c.)  were  translated 
into  English,  and  published  in  2  vols.  8vo.  He  also 
wrote,  The  Christian  Prince,  a  refutation  of  The 
Prince  of  Macchiavelli.  He  died  at  Madrid  in  1611. — 
Biog.   Universelle. 


EIBERA,    FRANCIS    DE. 

Francis  de  Ribeea  was  born  at  Villacaslin  in  1537, 
and  was  educated  at  Salamanca.  He  became  a 
Jesuit  in  1570.  From  this  time  he  was  employed 
by  his  superiors  in  interpreting  the  Scriptures, 
and  filled  the  chair  of  professor  of  divinity  in  their 
seminary  at  Salamanca  till  his  death  in  1591.  His 
works  are  : — Commentarii  in  XII.  Prophetas  Minores ; 
Sensum  eorundem  Prophetarum  historicum  et  moralem, 
ssepe  etiam  AUegoricum  complacentes ;  Commentarii 
Historic!  selecti  in  XII.  Prophetas  Minores ;  In 
Sacrum  Jesu  Christi  Evangelium  secundum  Jo- 
annem ;  In  Epistolam  ad  Hebrgeos ;  In  Sacram  B. 
Joannis  Apostoli  et  Evangelistse  Apocalypsin ;  De 
Templo  et  iis  quae  ad  Templum  pertinent,  Lib.  V. 
1593,  8vo ;  and.  The  Life  of  St.  Theresa,  foundress 
of  the  reformed  order  of  the  barefooted  Carmelites.— 
Moreri. 

RICCI,    MATTHEW. 

Matthew  Ricci  was  born  in  155Q,  at  Macerata  in 
the  March  of  Ancona.  He  became  a  Jesuit  at  19 
years  of  age.  He  had  not  completed  his  theological 
studies,  when  he  followed  to  the  East  Indies  his  pre- 
ceptor father  Valignan.  During  his  abode  at  Goa  he 
applied  assiduously  to  the  language  of  China,  to  which 

VOL.  VIII,  T 


^06  RICCA. 

country  he  was  destined.  He  was  furnished  with 
another  branch  of  knowledge  necessary  in  that  mission, 
that  of  mathematics,  which  he  had  acquired  at  Rome, 
under  the  celebrated  Clavius.  In  1583,  he  arrived  at 
Caoquin,  in  the  province  of  Canton,  where  he  settled 
with  some  brethren.  To  ingratiate  himself  with  the 
Chinese,  he  made  a  map  of  the  world,  in  which, 
whilst  he  corrected  their  prejudices  with  respect  to  the 
relative  dimensions  of  their  country,  he  complied  with 
them  by  altering  the  meridian,  so  as  to  place  it  in 
the  centre.  With  a  similar  spirit  of  compliance,  he 
drew  up  a  Chinese  catechism,  containing  only  the 
precepts  of  morality  and  natural  religion  ;  judging 
that  to  present  to  them  the  mysteries  of  the  Catholic 
faith,  without  previous  preparation  would  only  serve 
to  inspire  them  with  repugnance.  His  policy,  however, 
did  not  prevent  him  from  undergoing  some  persecu- 
tions in  consequence  of  Chinese  suspicion ;  and  it  was 
not  till  1600,  that  he  was  able  to  gain  access  to  the 
emperor  at  Peking,  employing  the  pretext  of  bringing 
him  a  present  of  curiosities  from  Europe.  He  was  well 
received,  and  permitted  to  settle  in  that  capital,  where 
his  mathematical  skill  rendered  him  acceptable  to  the 
court  and  men  of  letters.  He  purchased  a  house  there 
and  built  a  church ;  and  the  progress,  such  as  it  was, 
which  Christianity  made  in  the  metropolis  of  China, 
was  greatly  owing  to  his  exertions.  He  died  there  in 
1010,  leaving  curious  memoirs  on  China,  of  which 
Father  Trigault  made  use  in  his  work  "  De  Christiana 
expeditione  apud  Sinas."  In  the  "  Lettres  Edifiantes" 
is  a  dialogue  between  a  lettered  Chinese  and  an 
European,  on  the  necessity  of  a  first  cause.  Father 
Orleans,  in  a  life  of  this  missionary,  speaks  of  him 
as  an  apostle,  a  saint,  another  Xavier.  He  seems 
indeed,  to  have  possessed  all  the  indefatigable  zeal  of 
his  profession,  joined  to  the  peculiar  policy  of  his 
order. — Moreri.     Aiken. 


RICHARD  OF  ARMAGH.  207 


RICHARD    OF    ARMAGH. 

Richard,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  whose  real  name  was 
Fitz-Ralph,  aud  whose  historical  name  is  Armachanus, 
was  bom,  according  to  some,  in  Devonshire,  and  ac- 
cording to  others,  at  Dimdalk,  in  the  county  of  Louth. 
He  was  educated  at  Oxford,  first  at  University  and  then 
at  Balliol  Colleges.  He  commenced  D.D.,  and  in  1333 
was  commissary-general  of  that  university.  His  first 
Church  promotion  was  to  the  chancellorship  of  the 
Church  of  Lincoln,  in  July,  1334  ;  he  was  next  made 
Archdeacon  of  Chester  in  1336,  and  Dean  of  Lichfield 
in  the  following  year.  While  at  Oxford  he  had  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  opposition  to  the  Mendicant 
friars,  whose  affectation  of  poverty,  and  other  super- 
stitions and  irregularities,  he  exposed  in  his  lectures. 
In  1347,  he  was  advanced  to  the  Archbishopric  of 
Armagh.  The  friars  were  so  incensed  at  this  exposure 
of  them,  that  they  procured  him  to  be  cited  before 
Innocent  VI.  at  Avignon,  where  he  defended  his 
opinions  with  great  firmness. 

He  wrote  two  Tracts  against  the  Friars  Mendicant; 
one  of  them  entitled,  A  Defence  of  the  Curates  against 
the  Mendicants  ;  and  the  other,  De  Audientia  Confes- 
sionum.  His  Treatise  in  the  Defence  of  Parish  Priests 
is  nothing  but  the  Discourse  which  he  made  before  the 
pope  and  cardinals  at  Avignon.  It  begins  with  this 
text:  "Judge  not  according  to  the  appearance,  but 
judge  righteous  judgment."  And  here,  the  archbishop 
declares,  he  had  no  intention  to  oppose  any  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  neither  did  he  desire  the  dissolution  of  the 
Friars'  order,  but  only  to  bring  up  their  practice  to  their 
institution.  From  hence  he  proceeds  to  relate  the  sub- 
ject and  occasion  of  the  dispute.  He  reports,  that  being 
at  London,  he  met  with  some  doctors  engaged  in  a 
discourse   about   the   poverty  of  our   Saviour   and   His, 


^08  KICHARD  OF  ARMAGH. 

Apostles.  That  being  invited  to  preach  upon  this  sub- 
ject, he  laid  down  nine  conclusions  in  seven  or  eight 
sermons,  at  which  the  Friars  Mendicant  took  check, 
and  brought  a  frivolous  complaint  against  him  before 
his  holiness.     His  nine  conclusions  are  these  : — 

First, — That  if  a  question  be  moved  about  making 
confessions  with  respect  to  place ;  in  this  case,  the 
parish  church  is  to  be  preferred  before  that  of  the  friars. 

Secondly, — That  the  parishioners  ought  rather  to  apply 
to  a  parson  or  curate  for  confession  than  to  a  friar. 

Thirdly, — That  notwithstanding  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was  poor  when  He  conversed  upon  earth,  yet  it  does 
not  appear  that  He  affected  poverty. 

Fourthly, — That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  did  never  beg, 
nor  make  profession  of  voluntary  poverty. 

Fifthly, — That  our  Saviour  never  taught  people  to 
make  a  choice  and  profession  of  beggary. 

Sixthly, — That  Christ  our  Lord  held  the  contrary,  that 
men  ought  not  to  beg  by  inclination,  nor  without  being 
forced  to  it  by  necessity. 

Seventhly, — That  there  is  neither  sense  nor  religion 
in  vowing  voluntary  and  perpetual  beggary. 

Eighthly, — That  it  is  not  agreeable  to  the  rule  of  the 
Friars  Minorites  to  be  under  engagements  of  voluntary 
poverty. 

Ninthly, — That  the  Bull  of  Alexander  IV.,  which  con- 
demned the  Libel  of  the  Masters  of  Paris,  censured  none 
of  these  seven  last  conclusions. 

This  Discourse  is  followed  with  a  sort  of  Memorial 
which  he  delivered  in  to  the  pope's  commissioners.  The 
purport  of  it  is  to  reply  to  the  reasons  which  the  priors 
alledged  to  justify  their  begging.  He  likewise  laid  ano- 
ther Paper  before  the  cardinal  commissioners,  containing 
a  recital  of  the  abuses  committed  by  the  begging  friars 
in  their  preaching,  confessions,  and  devotions. 

Fie  died  in  1360,  at  Avignon,  not  without  suspicion 
of  poison.      Fox  says  that  a  certain  cardinal,  hearing 


RICHARD  OF  ST.  VICTOR.  209 

of  his  death,  declared  openly,  that  a  mighty  pillar  of 
Christ's  Church  was  fallen.  His  works  are  : — Sermones 
quatuor,  ad  Crucem  Londinensem  ;  Defensio  Curatorum 
adversus  Fratres  Mendicantes,  Paris,  1496.  Fox,  in 
his  Martyrology,  asserts  that  the  whole  Bible  was  trans- 
lated into  Irish  by  him,  and  preserved  in  the  sixteenth 
century  ;  and  Archbishop  Usher  says  that  there  were 
several  fragments  of  this  translation  in  Ireland  in  his 
time. — Collier.     Wharton  s  Ai^pendix  to  Cave. 


EICHARD    OF   ST.  VICTOR. 

Richard  of  St.  Victor  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  edu- 
cated at  Paris,  w'hen  he  studied  under  Hugh  de  St, 
Victor,  and  became  one  of  the  canons  regular  of  St. 
Augustine  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Victor.  In  1164,  he  was 
elected  prior  of  his  monastery  ;  where  he  died  in  the 
year  1173,  equally  respected  for  his  virtues  as  for  his 
learned  attainments.  Concerning  his  merits  as  a  writer 
Dupin  observes,  "  that  he  shews  a  great  deal  of  subtlety 
in  his  theological  treatises,  and  argues  methodically, 
with  an  exactness  becoming  an  able  logician.  His 
critical  pieces  are  very  accurate,  for  the  time  in  which 
he  lived.  His  style,  however,  is  not  very  elevated ;  on 
which  account  his  pious  treatises,  though  abounding 
in  excellent  matter,  are  greatly  deficient  in  weight  and 
energy." 

His  works  consist  of  critical  observations  and  remarks 
on  some  of  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
relating  to  the  tabernacle,  and  the  temple  of  Solomon ; 
allegorical  and  moral  "  Commentaries  "  on  several  of  the 
Psalms,  the  Song  of  Songs,  and  the  Apocalj^pse  ;  Ques- 
tions on  certain  difficult  passages  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
and  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  part  of  which  is  printed 
among  the  works  of  Hugh  St.  Victor;  and  numerous 
critical,  doctrinal,  and  practical  treatises,  which  are  par- 
T   3 


no  RICHARDSON. 

ticularized  in  the  two  first  of  our  authorities.  The 
whole  of  them  have  been  frequently  printed  in  a  col- 
lective form  ;  and  the  best  edition  is  said  to  be  that 
of  Rouen,  in  1650,  in  2  vols,  folio. — Cave.    Diqnn. 


RICHARDSON,    JOHN. 

John  Richardson  was  an  Irish  prelate,  of  whose  early- 
life  little  is  known,  except  that  he  was  born  in  Chester 
and  educated  at  Dublin.  He  was  consecrated  to  the 
See  of  Ardagh  in  1633.  In  1641,  being  in  dread  of 
the  rebellion  which  broke  out  in  October  of  that  year, 
he  removed  to  England,  and  died  in  London  in  1654. 
He  was  a  man  of  profound  learning,  well  versed  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  skilled  in  sacred  chronology.  His  works 
are  : — A  Sermon  of  the  doctrine  of  Justification ;  and 
Choice  Observations  and  explanations  upon  the  Old 
Testament,  1655,  fol.  These  Observations,  which  extend 
to  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  seem  intended 
as  a  supplement  to  the  Assembly's  Annotations,  in 
■which  he  wrote  the  Annotations  on  Ezekiel ;  and  they 
were  prepared  for  publication  by  him  some  time  before 
his  death,  at  the  express  desire  of  Archbishop  Usher, 
with  whom  he  appears  to  have  long  lived  in  intimacy. — 
Harris's  Ware. 


RICHARDSON,    WILLIAM. 

William  Richardson  was  born  in  1 698,  at  Wilsham- 
stead,  near  Bedford,  and  educated  at  Westminster,  and 
at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  appointed 
Curate  of  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  which  he  held  until 
1726,  when  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  that  parish.  He 
published  in  1727,  the  Praelectiones  Ecclesiasticae  of  his 
uncle,  John  Richardson,  author  of  a  Vindication  of  the 


EICHER.  211 

Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  against  Toland.  In  1724, 
he  was  collated  to  the  Prebend  of  Welton-Rivall,  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Lincoln.  In  1730,  he  published.  The  Use- 
fulness and  Necessity  of  Revelation ;  in  four  Sermons, 
preached  at  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  8vo;  and  in  1733, 
Relative  Holiness,  a  Sermon  preached  at  the  Consecra- 
tion of  the  Parish  Church  of  St.  John's,  Southwark. 
He  next  undertook,  at  the  request  of  Bishops  Gibson 
and  Potter,  to  publish  a  new  edition  of  Godwin  de 
Praesulibus  (which  api:)eared  in  J 743,  fol.)  He  then 
returned  to  Cambridge,  for  the  convenience  of  the 
libraries,  and  more  easy  communication  with  his 
learned  contemporaries;  and  in  1735,  he  proceeded 
D.  D.  In  1736,  he  was  chosen  master  of  Emmanuel 
College;  and  he  served  the  office  of  vice-chancellor  in 
1738,  and  again  in  1769..  In  1746,  he  was  appointed 
chaplain  to  the  king.  He  was  named  in  the  will  of 
Archbishop  Potter  to  a  precentorship  of  Lincoln  ;  which 
however,  was  contested  with  him  by  Archbishop  Pot- 
ter's chaplain  Dr.  Chapman.  The  lord-keeper  Henley 
decided  in  favour  of  Chapman  ;  but  on  Dr.  Richard- 
son's appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords,  the  decree  was 
reversed.  Burn  has  inserted  a  full  account  of  this 
cause  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Law.  Dr.  Richardson  died 
in  1775.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries, and  left  in  M.S.  some  valuable  collections 
relative  to  the  constitution  of  the  university ;  many 
biographical  anecdotes,  preparatory  to  an  Athente 
Cantabrigienses,  which  he  once  intended  to  publish ; 
and  an  alphabetical  list  of  all  the  graduates  of  the 
university  from  1500  to  1735  inclusive. — Gen.  Biog. 
Diet. 


RICHER,    EDMUND. 

Edmund  Richer  was  born  at  Chaource,  in  the  diocese 


212  RICHER. 

of  Langres,  in  the  year  15 GO.  He  studied  divinity 
at  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  was  admitted  a 
member  of  the  house  and  society  of  the  Sorbonne,  and 
performed  the  exercises  for  his  licentiate  in  1587, 
with  great  reputation.  At  the  same  time  he  taught 
the  logical  class  in  the  College  of  Cardinal  le  Moine. 
Possessing  a  bold  and  impetuous  spirit,  he  was  enticed 
to  join  the  party,  and  to  embrace  the  sentiments  of 
the  league  ;  and  he  had  even  the  hardihood,  in  one 
of  his  theses,  to  express  his  approbation  of  the 
murder  of  Henry  the  Third  by  James  Clement.  His 
opinions,  however,  soon  underwent  a  radical  change,  and 
he  was  induced  from  motives  of  genuine  patriotism, 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  Henry  IV.  No  sooner  had 
he  taken  the  degree  of  doctor,  in  1590,  than  he 
openly  declared  in  favour  of  that  prince,  and  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  activity  and  success  in  bringing 
back  the  faculty  to  their  duty.  In  1594,  he  was 
made  grand  master  and  principal  of  the  College  of 
Cardinal  le  Moine.  In  1600,  he  made  his  first 
appearance  from  the  press,  as  editor  and  translator 
into  French,  of  Tertullian's  book  "DePallio."  About 
the  year  1605,  he  began  to  print  an  edition  of  the 
works  of  John  Gerson,  or  Charlier,  that  bold  defender 
of  the  authority  of  general  councils  above  that  of  the 
Pope,  (see  his  Life;)  but  'he  was  prevented  from 
publishing  them  for  some  time,  by  the  interposition 
of  the  papal  nuncio  at  Paris.  This  circumstance  did 
not  deter  him  from  defending  the  opinions  of  Gerson, 
for  whom  he  wrote  an  "Apology,"  which  he  caused 
to  be  published  in  Germany,  and  which  was  after- 
wards connected  with  his  edition  of  that  author's 
works.  In  the  year  1608,  Richer  was  elected  syndic 
of  the  faculty  of  divinity  at  Paris;  and  while  he  held 
that  office,  he  distinguished  himself  by  the  zeal  and 
spirit  which  he  discovered  in  support  of  the  ancient 
privileges  of  the  Galilean  clergy.      In  the  year   1611, 


HIGHER.  213 

at  the  request  of  Nicholas  de  Verdun,  first  president 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  he  published  his  treatise 
•*  De  Potestate  Ecclesiae  in  Rebus  Temporalibus,"  4to. 
by  way  of  answer  to  the  thesis  of  a  Dominican  of 
Cologne,  who  maintained  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope, 
and  his  superiority  to  a  general  council.  This  pro- 
duction made  a  considerable  noise,  and  excited  against 
Richer  the  intrigues  of  the  nuncio,  and  of  some 
doctors  devoted  to  the  Court  of  RomCj  who  endeavoured 
to  procure  his  deposition  from  the  syndicate,  together 
with  the  condemnation  of  his  book  by  the  faculty  of 
divinity ;  but  the  parliament  prevented  the  faculty 
from  passing  their  censure  upon  it^  Notwithwstanding 
the  interference  of  that  body,  Cardinal  du  Perron 
assembled  eight  bishops  of  his  province  at  Paris,  in 
the  year  1612,  who  condemned  the  work.  Against 
their  judgment  as  partial  and  improperly  obtained, 
Richer  entered  an  appeal  before  the  parliament,  which 
was  registered  according  to  the  customary  forms ;  but 
no  further  proceedings  on  the  subject  took  place  in 
that  court. 

That  Richer's  book  should  be  proscribed  at  Rome, 
was  naturally  to  be  expected  ;  and  the  papal  anathema 
was  speedily  followed  by  that  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Aix,  and  of  three  of  his  suffragans.  Immediately 
afterwards,  a  crowd  of  writers  entered  the  lists  against 
the  obnoxious  work,  whose  patrons  procured  an  express 
order  from  court,  that  the  author  should  not  publish 
anything  in  its  defence.  Not  satisfied  with  having 
thus  silenced  him,  his  enemies  availed  themselves  of 
their  influence  with  the  higher  powers,  to  obtain  letters 
of  command  from  the  king  and  queen  regent  to  the 
faculty  of  divinity,  enjoining  them  to  choose  another 
syndic.  Against  this  arbitrary  attack  on  the  privileges 
of  the  faculty.  Richer  publicly  protested ;  after  which 
having  first  read  a  written  defence  of  himself  and  his 
opinions,    he    withdrew   from    his    post.       From    this 


214  RICHER. 

time  be  ceased  to  attend  the  meetings  at  the  Sor- 
bonne,  and  shut  himself  up  chiefly  in  solitude, 
occupied  in  study  and  the  composition  of  works  which 
were  not  published  before  his  death.  His  enemies, 
however,  would  not  suffer  him  to  pursue  his  labours 
in  peace,  but  by  their  interest  procured  his  arrest, 
and  commitment  to  the  prison  of  St.  Victor.  They 
would  even  have  delivered  him  up  to  the  Pope,  had 
not  the  parliament  and  the  Chancellor  of  France 
prevented  them,  on  the  complaint  of  the  University 
against  their  proceedings.  Still  his  enemies  continued 
their  persecution;  and  in  the  year  1620,  he  was 
pressed  to  publish  a  declaration  condemning  his  book. 
This  he  was  determined  not  to  do ;  but  he  made  a 
declaration  of  his  readiness  to  explain  the  propositions 
which  it  contained  in  a  catholic  sense,  adding,  more- 
over, that  he  submitted  his  work  to  the  judgment  of 
the  holy  see  and  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Afterwards 
he  made  a  second  declaration  to  the  same  purport. 
In  1629,  he  reprinted  his  treatise  "De  Potestate," 
accompanied  with  such  a  comment  as  he  thought 
might  prove  satisfactory,  and  the  two  declarations 
just  mentioned.  The  Court  of  Rome,  however,  de- 
manding a  more  explicit  retractation  of  his  doctrine, 
Cardinal  Richelieu  determined  that  he  should  sign  a 
third  declaration  drawn  up  by  an  apostolic  notary 
who  was  sent  to  Paris  for  that  purpose  by  the 
pope.  Violence,  it  is  said,  was  resorted  to,  to  compel 
compliance,  which  hastened  the  old  man's  death, 
which  occurred  in  1631.  He  left  behind  him  several 
works,  which  discover  extensive  learning,  great  discern- 
ment, much  critical  skill,  and  a  commendable  boldness 
in  exploding  the  prejudices  of  the  schools.  Mosheim 
honourably  distinguishes  him  from  his  contemporaries, 
by  observing  that  he  "  was  the  only  doctor  in  the 
University  of  Paris  who  followed  the  literal  sense  and 
the   plain   and    natural   signification   of  the   words   of 


RIDLEY.  215 

Scripture;  while  all  the  other  commentators  and 
interpreters,  imitating  the  pernicious  example  of  several 
ancient  exj)ositors,  were  always  racking  their  brains 
for  mysterious  and  sublime  significations,  where  none 
such  were,  nor  could  be  designed  by  the  sacred  writers." 
Besides  the  articles  already  mentioned,  he  was  the 
author  of  Vindicise  Doctrinas  Majorum,  de  Auctori- 
tate  Ecclesiae  in  Rebus  Fidei  et  Morum  ;  De  Optimo 
Academiae  Statui ;  and  Obsterix  Animorum.  After 
his  death  were  published  from  his  M.S.S.,  Notes  on 
the  Censure  of  the  Books  of  Mark  Anthony  de  Domi- 
nis  by  the  Sorbonne ;  A  History  of  General  Councils 
in  Latin,  printed  at  Cologne  in  1682,  in  3  vols.  4to ; 
and  a  History  of  the  Syndicate  of  Edmund  Richer, 
written  by  himself.  He  also  left  behind  him  in  M.S. 
A  History  of  Joan  of  Arc,  or  The  Maid  of  Orleans, 
in  4  vols,  fol.,  of  which  the  Abbe  Lenglet  made  free 
use  in  composing  his  History  of  Joan  of  Arc. — 
Moreri.     Aiken. 


RIDLEY,    NICHOLAS. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  within  the  compass  of 
an  article  in  this  work,  it  is  impossible  to  give  an 
adequate  account  of  this  illustrious  saint  and  martyr 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
in  every  relation  of  life,  the  power  of  his  intellect,  the 
integrity  of  his  principles,  and  the  piety  of  his  heart  were 
conspicuous.  For  the  public  affairs  and  general  history 
of  the  Church  at  this  period,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  Life  of  Cranmer.  Welmontswick,  in  Tynedale, 
in  the  county  of  Northumberland,  had  the  honour  of 
•being  the  birth  place  of  Nicholas  Ridley,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  was  educated  in  a  gram- 
mar school  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  and  thence  pro- 
ceeded to  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge.     When  he  came 


216  RIDLEY. 

to  Cambridge,  about  the  year  1518,  he  found  it  in  some 
disturbance,  occasioned  by  setting  up  the  pope's  indul- 
gences upon  the  school-gates,  over  which  was  written 
this  verse  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that 
hath  set  his  hope  in  the  Lord :  and  turned  not  unto 
the  proud,  and  to  such  as  go  about  with  lies."  (Psa.  xl.) 
The  person  who  stuck  it  up,  (though  then  unknown) 
was  excommunicated  by  the  chancellor  of  that  university, 
Bishop  Fisher;  it  seems  it  was  one  Peter  de  Valence, 
a  Norman.  Here  Ridley  had  an  oportunity  of  learning 
the  Greek  tongue,  at  the  public  lectures  of  Richard 
Crook,  who  about  that  time  began  to  teach  it  in  Cam- 
bridge ;  to  which  all  the  scholars  equally  contributed, 
whether  they  attended  it  or  not.  As  to  religious  opinions, 
his  first  prejudices,  the  public  discredit  of  Lollardy  before 
he  came  to  Cambridge,  and  the  diligent  and  severe  pro- 
secution of  Lutherans  after  he  came  there,  were  all  in 
favour  of  the  established  superstitions.  Nay  more,  his 
uncle,  Dr.  Robert  Ridley,  at  whose  expense  and  under 
whose  influence  he  was  now  educating  at  Pembroke 
Hall,  would  keep  him  steady  in  that  tract :  for  in  the 
year  1520,  or  1521,  when  the  cardinal  held  a  kind  of 
convocation  in  his  house,  for  the  discussing  and  refuting 
Luther's  doctrines,  Dr.  Ridley  (with  others)  was  sent 
from  the  University  of  Cambridge  to  assist  in  them. 

In  1522,  he  took  the  degree  of  B.A.,  and  in  1524, 
he  was  chosen  fellow  of  liis  college.  As  his  studies  were 
now  directed  to  divinity,  his  uncle,  at  his  own  charge, 
sent  him  for  farther  improvement  to  the  Sorbonne,  and 
thence  to  Louvain.  In  1530,  he  was  chosen  junior 
treasurer  of  his  college,  and  about  this  time  appears  to 
have  been  more  than  ordinarily  intent  on  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures.  For  this  purpose  he  used  to  walk 
in  the  orchard  at  Pembroke  Hall,  and  there  committed 
to  memory  almost  all  the  Epistles  in  Greek ;  which  walk 
is  still  called  Ridley's  Walk.  In  1533,  he  was  chosen 
senior  proctor  of  the  university. 


RIDLEY.  317 

While  he  was  proctor,  the  important  point  of  the~ 
pope's  supremacy  came  before  the  university  to  be  ex- 
amined on  the  authority  of  Scripture.  For  this  purpose 
tliey  appointed  public  disputations  for  sifting  the  ques- 
tion thoroughly.  In  these  it  is  probable  that  Ridley's 
education  at  Paris  had  given  him  an  ability  to  assist 
with  great  success  ;  as  he  might  have  learned  there  to 
overcome  the  chief  difficulty  in  that  question,  which  was 
to  get  over  the  prejudice  of  human  authority  in  the 
decrees  of  popes  and  councils,  and  their  false  interpre- 
tations of  Scripture.  Their  famous  appeal  from  the 
pope's  repeal  of  the  acts  of  the  Council  of  Basle  was 
yet  fresh  in  memory,  and  the  writings  of  two  of  their 
members,  Gerson  and  Occam,  were  then  diligently  read 
there.  The  latter  of  these  determines,  that  neither  the 
pope  nor  the  clergy  are  exempt  from  the  emperor's  jurisdic- 
tion ;  and  that  whatever  greater  privileges  they  enjoy,  they 
hold  of  human  right  only.  Grounding  his  determina- 
tion on  this  Scripture,  that  each,  after  embracing  Chris- 
tianity, was  to  remain  in  the  same  condition  in  which 
he  was  before  he  was  called.  (1  Cor.  vii.  20.)  If  therefore, 
says  he,  before  ordination,  every  priest  was  subject  to 
his  own  prince ;  after  priesthood  taken,  he  was  to  con- 
tinue in  the  same  subjection :  and  consequently  the 
pope,  if  before  he  was  called  to  the  Papacy  he  was 
subject  to  the  emperor,  his  being  called  to  the  Papacy 
does  not  discharge  him  from  being  under  the  imperial 
jurisdiction.  The  University  of  Cambridge  therefore 
following  the  judgment  of  that  at  Paris,  after  mature 
deliberation  came  to  this  resolution  :  "  That  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  had  no  more  authority  and  jurisdiction  derived 
to  him  from  God,  in  this  kingdom  of  England,  than 
any  other  foreign  bishop."  Signed  in  the  name  of  the 
university.  May  2nd,  1534,  by  Simon  Heynes,  vice- 
chancellor;  Nicholas  Ridley,  Richard  Wilkes,  proctors. 

In  1534,  he  took  the  degree  of  B.D.,  and  was  chosen 
chaplain  of  the  university,  and  public  reader.     In  1537, 

VOL.  VIII.  u 


218  RIDLEY. 

liis  great  reputation  as  a  preacher,  and  his  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Scriptures  and  fathers,  led  Cranmer, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  appoint  him  his  domestic 
chaplain.  As  a  farther  mark  of  esteem,  he  collated 
him  in  April,  1538,  to  the  vicarage  of  Heme  in  Kent. 
Here  he  preached  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
excepting  that  he  still  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
corporal  presence  in  the  Eucharist;  and  among  other 
converts  whom  he  made  to  them,  was  the  Lady  Fiennes. 
In  ]')39,  when  the  act  of  the  Six  Articles  was  passed, 
Ridley  who  had  now  the  character  of  a  zealous  Scrip- 
turist,  bore  his  testimony  against  it  in  the  pulpit.  In 
1549  he  went  to  Cambridge,  and  took  his  degree  of  D.D. 
Soon  after  this  he  was  preferred  to  the  mastership  of 
Pembroke  Hall,  and  about  the  same  time,  through  the 
archbishop's  influence  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the 
king,  and  was  nominated  to  a  prebend  in  the  Cathe- 
dral Church  of  Canterbury,  which  was  now  made  a 
collegiate  church  with  a  deanery,  twelve  prebendaries, 
and  six  preachers. 

How  honestly  and  prudently  the  new  prebendary 
behaved  himself,  appears  in  good  measure  from  his 
endeavours  in  the  pulpit  to  set  the  abuses  of  Popery 
so  open  before  the  people's  eyes  in  his  sermons,  as  to 
provoke  the  prebendaries  and  preachers  of  the  old 
learning  to  exhibit  articles  against  him,  at  the  Arch- 
bishop's Visitation  for  preaching  contrary  to  his  tes- 
timony against  any  error  he  had  discovered ;  yet,  the 
statute  of  the  six  articles.  He  feared  not  to  bear 
with  respect  to  the  authority  by  which  the  six  articles 
were  enjoined,  delivering  his  opinion  so  cautiously,  as 
that  his  accusers  could  prove  nothing  but  the  malice 
of  their  accusation. 

His  subjects,  and  his  manner  of  handling  them,  we 
learn  from  his  adversaries.  His  subjects  were  chosen 
to  recommend  a  sensible  spirit  of  devotion;  maintain- 
ing that  prayer  ought  to  be  made  in  a  language  which 


RIDLEY.  219 

the  people  understood,  and  not  in  an  unintelligible 
tongue,  "for  so  it  were  but  babbling";  and  for  this  end  he 
introduced  in  his  own  parish  church  at  Heme  a  trans- 
lation of  the  excellent  hymn  of  St.  Ambrose,  Te  Deum ; 
directing  at  other  times  not  to  build  any  security  upon 
mere  ceremonies,  for  that  no  meeter  term  could  be  given 
them  than  beggarly  ceremonies  :  and  though  he  had  a 
very  high  opinion  of  the  usefulness  of  Auricular  Con- 
fession, as  in  a  letter  written  by  him  in  prison  he  de- 
clares he  always  had,  and  it  was  now  appointed  by 
statute,  that  of  the  six  articles,  yet  he  ingenuously  and 
faithfully  declared  the  truth  in  that  matter,  that  it  was 
but  a  mere  positive  law,  and  ordained  as  a  godly  mean 
for  the  sinner  to  come  to  the  priest  for  counsel ;  as  such 
he  recommended  and  wished  the  use  of  it ;  but  then  he 
declared,  that  as  to  the  doctrine  of  its  being  absolutely 
necessary  to  salvation,  he  could  not  find  it  in  Scripture. 
These  points  we  find  urged  against  him  by  the  preben- 
daries and  preachers  of  Canterbury  two  years  after. 
The  manner  in  which  he  treated  his  subjects  we  learn 
from  the  acknowledgment  of  Winchester  in  a  letter  to 
Ridley  in  King  Edward's  reign,  when  his  authority  and 
reputation  might  have  emboldened  him  to  be  more  dog- 
matical. He  says,  "You  declared  yourself  always  desirous 
to  set  forth  the  mere  truth,  with  great  desire  of  unity,  as 
you  professed ;  not  extending  any  of  your  asseverations 
beyond  your  knowledge :  but  always  adding  such  like 
words,  as  far  as  you  had  read,  and  if  any  man  could 
shew  you  further,  you  woidd  hear  him;  wherein  you 
were  much  to  be  commended."  Such  was  the  meek 
and  gentle  spirit  of  him,  whom  a  late  Popish  writer 
is  pleased  to  brand  for  "  his  virulent  temper  in  matters 
of  religion." 

Hitherto  Dr.  Ridley  had  been  an  unsuspecting  believer 
in  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation ;  but  in  the  year 
1545,  while  spending  a  considerable  time  in  retirement 
at  Heme,   he  employed  himself  in   carefully  and   dis- 


U2Q  RIDLEY. 

passionately  examining  into  its  truth  and  evidence.  To 
this  subject  his  attention  appears  to  have  been  drawn, 
by  the  apology  of  the  Zuinglians  for  their  doctrine 
respecting  the  Eucharist  in  opposition  to  Luther,  which 
had  been  lately  published,  and  was  very  generally  and 
eagerly  read.  He  had  also  procured  the  treatise  of 
Bertram  or  Ratramn,  (see  his  Life)  a  monk  of  Corbie 
in  the  ninth  century,  written  against  Paschasius 
Radbert,  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
the  Bald,  of  which  we  have  made  particular  men- 
tion in  our  life  of  the  author.  From  this  book 
Dr.  Ridley  learned,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  corporal 
presence,  or  transubstantiation,  was  for  the  first  time 
advanced  so  lately  as  about  the  year  840,  and  that 
it  met  wdth  the  strongest  opposition  from  some  of 
the  firm  supporters  of  the  Catholic  Church.  This  dis- 
covery razed  at  once  that  foundation  of  authority  on 
which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  establish  that  doc- 
trine, and  prepared  him  to  consider  without  prejudice 
what  the  writers  above  mentioned  had  published.  He 
now  determined  to  search  the  Scriptures  more  accurately 
upon  the  subject,  as  well  as  the  doctrine  of  the  primitive 
fathers.  As  he  proceeded,  he  honestly  communicated 
his  discoveries  and  his  scruples  to  his  friend  and  patron 
Cranmer,  who,  knowing  the  sincerity  of  the  man,  and 
his  cool  judgment,  was  prevailed  upon  to  examine  this 
doctrine  himself  with  the  utmost  care.  The  result  was, 
that  both  Dr.  Ridley  and  the  archbishop  became  fully 
convinced,  that  the  doctrine  in  question  was  not  a  doc- 
trine of  Scripture.  The  setting  aside  this  absurd  tenet 
was  a  very  important  article  of  the  Reformation ;  for,  as 
Cranmer  expressed  himself,  "  the  taking  away  of  beads, 
pilgrimages,  pardons,  and  such  like  Popery,  was  but 
the  lopping  a  few  branches,  which  would  soon  spring 
up  again,  unless  the  roots  of  the  tree,  which  were 
transubstantiation  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  were 
pulled  up."     And   this  he  acknowledged  was  owing  to 


RIDLEY.  aai 

conference  with  Dr.  Ridley,  "  who,  by  sundry  persua- 
sions and  authorities  of  doctors,  drew  him  quite  from 
his  old  opinion."  Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1545, 
Cranmer  procured  for  his  friend  the  eighth  stall  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter  at  Westminster.  Upon  the 
accession  of  Edward  VI.  in  1547,  Dr.  Ridley,  being 
appointed  to  preach  before  the  king  on  Ash- Wednesday, 
took  that  opportunity,  after  confuting  the  Bishop  of 
Rome's  pretended  claims  to  authority  and  power,  to 
discourse  concerning  the  abuses  of  images  in  churches, 
and  ceremonies,  particularly  the  use  of  holy  water  for 
driving  away  devils ;  which  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, who  was  among  his  auditors,  made  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  defend,  in  a  letter  which  he  sent 
to  him  on  the  following  Monday. 

In  1547,  Dr.  Ridley  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Rochester.  This  year,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Dr.  Cranmer,  communicated  to  Latimer,  (released  from 
his  confinement,  but  refusing  the  episcopal  charge,  and 
residing  with  the  archbishop)  those  truths  with  regard 
to  the  Lord's  Supper,  with  which  Ridley  had  brought 
him  acquainted  the  year  before.  The  idolatrous  vene- 
ration of  that  Sacrament  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  in 
worshipping  the  elements,  as  converted  into  the  very 
substantial  and  natural  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ ;  and 
the  extreme  reverence  paid  to  them  by  the  Lutherans, 
as  comprehending  and  containing  in  them  the  same 
substantial  and  natural  Body  and  Blood,  were  now 
openly  opposed:  but  the  Anabaptists,  who  fled  from 
Germany  hither ;  the  extravagant  among  ourselves,  who 
leap  from  one  extreme,  over  the  truth,  to  the  other ;  and 
some  Protestants,  who  confounded  truth  and  error  by 
their  scurrility,  carried  this  opposition  so  far  as  to 
bring  this  Sacrament  into  great  contempt.  Railing  bills 
against  it  were  fixed  upon  the  doors  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  and  other  places,  terming  it  Jack  in  the  box, 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Halter,  Round  Robin,  and  such 
u  3 


k'52  KTDLEY. 

like  irreverent  terms.  The  new  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
who,  was  as  far  removed  from  profaneness  as  from 
superstition,  set  his  face  strenuously  against  this  im- 
piety; and  publicly  rebuked  it  in  his  sermon  at  St. 
Paul's  Cross,  with  great  earnestness  asserting  the 
dignity  of  the  Sacrament,  and  the  presence  of  Christ's 
Body  there ;  reproving  with  great  freedom  those  who 
did  irreverently  behave  themselves  with  regard  to  it ; 
bidding  them,  who  esteemed  the  Sacrament  no  better 
than  a  piece  of  bread,  to  depart,  as  unworthy  to  hear 
the  mystery ;  as  the  Poenitentes,  Audientes,  Catechu- 
meni,  and  Energumeni,  in  the  primitive  times  were 
not  admitted  when  the  Sacrament  was  administered. 
He  observed  to  them  (as  Fecknam  reports)  that  the  devil 
believed  better  than  some  among  them  ;  for  he  believed 
that  Christ  was  able  of  stones  to  make  bread,  but  they 
would  not  believe  that  Christ's  Body  was  in  the  Sacra- 
ment :  but  to  the  receivers,  the  Sanctl,  he  so  explained 
the  Presence,  that  he  asserted,  that  the  material  sub- 
stance of  the  bread  did  still  remain,  and  that  Christ 
called  it  His  Body,  Meat,  and  Flesh,  giving  it  the 
properties  of  the  Thing  of  which  it  beareth  the  name. 
Here  we  find  the  same  lines  of  his  character  continued 
in  the  preacher,  which  were  observed  before  in  the 
disputant ;  modest  in  proposing  his  opinions  to  persons 
whose  judgments  only  w^ere  mistaken,  meekly  instruc- 
ting those  who  were  in  error:  but  earnest  and  severe 
wherever  he  discovered  a  fault  in  the  will,  boldly 
rebuking  vice.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  his  care  and 
caution,  this  sermon  was  afterwards  very  untruly  and 
unjustly  represented,  as  he  himself  complained,  as  if 
he  had  in  it  asserted  the  presence  of  Christ's  natural 
Body. 

We  may  mention  here  a  disputation  held  at  Cam- 
bridge on  this  subject,  at  which  Bishop  Pddley  presided. 
The  Protector  Somerset,  presuming  probably  on  the 
favours  lately  shewn  to   the   Bishop  of  Rochester,  and 


RIDLEY.  j^'23 

the  expectation  of  further  favours  in  «time  to  come, 
endeavoured  to  persuade  or  intimidate  him  to  coun- 
tenance one  of  those  foul  jobs  which  disgraced  so  many 
of  the  lay  reformers,  by  which  he  desired,  under  pre- 
tence of  Reformation,  to  rob  the  University  of  Cambridge 
and  to  enrich  himself.  Ridley  could  be  neither  per- 
suaded nor  intimidated,  and  the  proud  and  grasping 
protector  was  obliged  to  drop  the  affair.  The  commis- 
sioners to  whom  the  Protector  Somerset  intended  to 
assign  this  job,  were  appointed  also  to  preside  at  the 
disputation  just  alluded  to,  and  this  part  of  the  com- 
mission was  executed.  Two  positions  were  appointed 
to  be  the  subjects  of  this  public  disputation ;  and  after 
they  had  been  sufficiently  ventilated,  a  determination 
of  the  matters  debated  was  to  be  made  by  the  Bishop 
of  Rochester.     The  two  positions  were  : — 

1.  Transubstantiation  cannot  be  proved  by  the  plain 
and  manifest  words  of  Scripture,  nor  can  thereof  be 
necessarily  collected,  nor  yet  confirmed  by  the  consents 
of  the  ancient  fathers  for  these  one  thousand  years 
past. 

2.  In  the  Lord's  Supper  is  none  other  oblation  or 
sacrifice,  than  one  only  remembrance  of  Christ's  death, 
and  of  thanksgiving. 

The  first  disputation  was  on  Thursday  the  20th  of 
June,  Dr.  Madew  of  Clare  Hall,  respondent,  maintain- 
ing the  above  positions:  Dr.  Glyn,  Master  Langdale, 
Sedgwick  and  Young,  opponents.  The  second  dispu- 
tation was  held  on  Monday  the  24th,  Dr.  Glyn,  respon- 
dent, maintaining  the  contrary  positions  :  Master  Par- 
ker, (not  Matthew,  who  was  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury)  Pollard,  Vavasor,  and  Young,  opponents. 
There  is  one  difference  observed  between  the  disputa- 
tions at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge  :  Peter  Martyr 
admitted  a  change  in  the  elements  ;  and  Langdale, 
one  of  the  opponents,  the  first  day  at  Cambridge,  asked, 
supposing  a  change   admitted,    "  Whether  that  change 


^24  RIDLEY. 

was  wrought  in  the  substance,  or  in  the  accidents,  or 
else  in  both,  or  in  nothing?"  Ridley  interposed  and 
answered,  "There  is  no  change,  either  of  the  sub- 
stances or  of  the  accidents,  insomuch,  that  whereas  the 
bread  and  wine  were  not  sanctified  before,  nor  holy, 
yet  afterward  they  be  sanctified,  and  so  do  receive 
then  another  sort  or  kind  of  virtue,  which  they  had  not 
before." 

After  the  disputations  were  finished,  the  bishop 
determined : — 

First, — Against  Transubstantiation,  on  these  five 
principal   grounds : 

1.  The  authority,  majesty,  and  verity  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture: "I  will  not  drink  hereafter  of  the  fruit  of  the 
vine."  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  call  it  bread  after  con- 
secration. They  speak  of  breaking,  which  agrees  with 
bread,  not  with  Christ's  Body.  It  was  to  be  done  in 
remembrance  of  Him.  "  This  is  the  Bread  that  came 
down  from  heaven ;"  but  Christ's  Body  came  not  down 
from  heaven.  "It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing." 

'2.  The  most  certain  testimonies  of  the  ancient 
Catholic  fathers,  who  (after  my  judgment)  do  sufficiently 
declare  this  matter.  Here  he  produced  many  fathers, 
Dionysius,  Ignatius,  Irenasus,  Tertullian,  Chrysostom, 
Cyprian,  Theodoret,  Gelasius,  x\ustin,  Cyril,  Isychius 
and  Bertram,  who  call  it  bread  after  consecration, 
sacramental  bread,  the  figure  of  Christ's  Body  :  and 
expressly  declare  that  bread  still  continues  after  con- 
secration, and  that  the  elements  cease  not  to  be  the 
substance  of  bread  and  wine  still. 

3.  The  nature  of  a  Sacrament.  In  this  he  sujDposes 
natural  symbols  to  represent  like  spiritual  effects,  which 
in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  are  unity,  nutri- 
tion, and  conversion.  They  who  take  away  the  union 
of  the  grains  making  one  bread,  of  which  partaking 
we  become   one  mystical  Body  of  Christ ;    or  they  who 


HIDLEY.  j;)Q5 

deny  the  nutrition,  or  substance  of  tliose  grains,  by 
which  our  bodies  being  nourished  is  represented  the 
nourishment  of  our  souls  by  the  Body  of  Christ,  these 
take  away  the  simiUtude  between  the  bread  and  the 
Body  of  Christ,  and  destroy  the  nature  of  a  Sacrament. 
As  neither  is  there  any  thing  to  signify  our  being  turned 
into  Christ's  Body,  if  there  be  no  conversion  of  the  bread 
into  the  substance  of  our  bodies. 

The  4th  ground  was.  that  Transubstantiation  destroys 
one  of  the  natures  in  Christ. 

They  which  say  that  Christ  is  carnally  present  in  the 
Eucharist,  do  take  from  Him  the  verity  of  man's  nature. 
Eutyches  granted  the  divine  nature  in  Christ,  but  His 
human  nature  he  denied.  So  they  that  defend  Tran 
substantiation,  ascribe  that  to  the  human  nature,  which 
only  belongeth  to  the  divine  nature. 

The  5th  ground  is  the  most  sure  belief  of  the  article 
of  our  faith,  "  He  ascended  into  heaven." 

He  quotes  from  St.  Austin  on  St.  John,  "  The  Lord 
is  above,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world  :  but  yet  the 
verity  of  the  Lord  is  here  also.  For  His  Body  wherein 
He  rose  again  must  needs  be  in  one  place,  but  His 
verity  is  spread  abroad  everywhere." 

By  verity  he  means  an  essential  divine  presence  by 
His  invisible  and  unspeakable  grace,  as  he  distinguishes 
on  Matthew  xxviii,,  "  As  touching  His  majesty,  His 
providence,  His  invisible  and  unspeakable  grace,  these 
words  are  fulfilled,  which  He  spake,  '  I  am  with  you 
unto  the  end  of  the  world  :'  but  according  to  the  flesh 
which  He  took  upon  Him,  so  '  ye  shall  not  have  Me 
always  with  you.'  And  why?  because  as  concerning 
His  flesh  He  went  up  into  heaven,  and  is  not  here, 
for  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father:  and 
yet  concerning  the  presence  of  His  divine  majesty  He 
is  not  departed  hence."  And  from  Vigilius  he  quoted, 
"  Concerning  His  flesh  we  look  for  Him  from  heaven  ; 
Whom,  as  concerning  the  Wo}d  (or  divine   nature)  we 


226  EIDLEY. 

believe  to  be  with  us  on  earth."  And  again,  "the 
course  of  Scripture  must  be  searched  of  us,  and  many- 
testimonies  must  be  gathered,  to  shew  plainly  what 
a  wickedness  and  sacrilege  it  is,  to  refer  those  things 
to  the  property  of  the  divine  nature,  which  do  only 
belong  to  the  nature  of  the  flesh  :  and  contrariwise, 
to  apply  those  things  to  the  nature  of  the  flesh,  which 
do  properly  belong  to  the  divine  nature."  This  he 
observes  the  Transubstantiators  do,  who  affirm  Christ's 
Body  not  to  be  contained  in  any  one  place,  and  ascribe  that 
to  His  humanity,  which  properly  belongs  to  His  divinity. 
Second, — Against  the  oblation  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's 
Supj)er  he  determined  on  these  two  grounds  : — 

1.  Scripture;  as  Paul  saith,  Hebrews,  ix.,  "Christ 
being  become  an  High  Priest  of  good  things  to  come, 
by  a  greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle  not  made  with 
hands,  that  is,  not  of  this  building  :  neither  by  the 
blood  of  goats  and  calves,  but  by  His  own  Blood,  entered 
once  into  the  Holy  place,  and  obtained  eternal  redemp- 
tion for  us.  And  now  in  the  end  of  the  world  He  hath 
appeared  once  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Him- 
self." And  again,  "  Christ  was  once  oflered  to  take  away 
the  sins  of  many."  Moreover  he  saith,  "With  one 
offering  hath  He  made  perfect  for  ever  those  that  are 
sanctified."  These  Scriptures  do  persuade  me  to  believe 
that  there  is  no  other  oblation  of  Christ  (albeit  I  am 
not  ignorant  that  there  are  many  sacrifices)  but  that 
which  was  07ice  made  on  the  cross. 

2.  The  testimonies  of  the  ancient  fathers.  Austin 
ad  Bonif.  Epist.  23.  Again,  in  his  book  of  forty- three 
questions,  question  forty-one,  contra  Transubstan.  lib. 
20.  cap.  21,  28.,  where  he  writes  how  the  Christians 
keep  a  memorial  of  the  sacrifice  past,  with  an  oblation, 
and  participation  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ. 
Fulgentius  in  his  book  de  Fide,  calls  the  same  a  com- 
memoration. And  these  things  are  sufficient  at  this 
time  for  a  scholastic  determination  of  these  matters. 


PJDLEY.  Sa-T 

In  1548,  Bishop  Kidley  was  employed  with  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  and  others,  in  reforming,  translating, 
and  compiling  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  (See  the 
Life  of  Cranmer. J 

On  the  suspension  of  Bishop  Bonner,  Bishop  Ridley 
was  translated  to  London,  and  was  enthroned  in  April, 
1550.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  piety,  zeal,  sound 
judgment,  and  decorum  with  which  he  conducted  him- 
self in  this  high  office.  We  have  a  minute  account 
of  his  domestic  arrangements,  w^hich  are  interesting, 
as  throwing  light  upon  the  customs  of  the  time,  while 
it  is  for  all  time  instructive.  When,  in  1551,  the 
sweating  sickness  prevailed  in  England,  and  made  its 
appearance  in  London  in  the  month  of  June,  while 
all  the  nobility  and  men  of  wealth  fled,  Bishop  Ridley 
remained  at  his  post,  braved  all  danger,  and  while 
hundreds  were  dying  daily  around  him,  he  laboured 
in  the  discharge  of  his  pastoral  functions  and  endea- 
voured to  improve  the  public  calamity  to  the  reformation 
of  the  manners  of  the  people. 

In  1551,  occurred  the  controversy  between  the  Bishop 
of  Lttndon  and  Dr.  Hooper,  the  elect  of  Gloucester, 
who  was  anxious  to  accept  the  episcopal  office  and 
revenues,  but  demurred  to  the  use  of  the  episcopal 
vestments.  There  were  long  arguings  between  them, 
and  at  last  the  dispute  kindled  into  some  heat.  The 
Bishop  considered  it  as  a  refractory  disobedience  to 
laws  and  governmxent,  which  it  is  necessary  at  all  times 
to  support,  but  was  then  more  particularly  so,  in  those 
days  of  faction ;  for  the  doctrine  of  Lady  Mary's  court 
w^as,  that  the  king's  laws  during  his  minority  were  not 
to  be  obeyed  ;  Bonner  and  Gardiner  had  refused  to 
preach  that  obedience  was  due  to  them ;  and  the  king- 
dom w^as  scarcely  quieted  from  insurrections  in  all  parts 
of  it  from  the  same  principle  :  nay  even  among  the  Gos- 
pellers, as  they  were  called,  their  whims  and  enthusiasm 
had  introduced  great  disorder :  not  only  Munster  had 


228  RIDLEY. 

taught  to  withdraw  all  obedience  from  the  civil  powers 
to  erect  an  unscriptural  kingdom  of  Christ,  but  Calvin's 
own  opinions,  to  which  Hooper  inclined,  were  probably 
too  well  known,  which  he  afterwards  published  in  his 
Prelections  upon  Amos  ;  where  he  says,  "  We  are  sen- 
sible of  the  consequence  of  that  unhappy  principle, 
which  gives  the  civil  magistrate  a  sovereignty  in  religion. 
The  complimenting  Henry  the  Eighth  wdth  such  a 
sovereign  authority  in  all  matters  shocked  me  extremely. 
They  who  call  him  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church 
under  Christ,  were  plainly  guilty  of  blasphemy."  On 
these  accounts  Ridley  looked  upon  it  as  a  point  of 
importance  that  Hooper  should  comply,  and  learn 
obedience  before  he  took  upon  him  the  office  of  a 
governor,  while  Hooper  endeavoured  to  represent  it  as 
a  contest  only  about  habits,  indifferent  at  best,  but  in 
his  judgment  sinful.  Hence  grew  a  warm  controversy 
about  religious  vestments ;  and  what  was  begun  by 
Cranmer  on  account  of  the  Premunire  was  now  called 
the  Bishop  of  London's  Controversy  de  re  vestiaria.  The 
pulpits  and  the  schools  engaged  in  the  dispute;  for 
Peter  Martyr  in  a  letter  to  Bucer  mentions  disputations 
at  Oxford,  about  the  middle  of  October,  on  this  ques- 
tion, "  whether  it  were  lawful  to  recall  the  Aaronic  cere- 
monies into  the  Christian  Church  ?"  In  which  letter 
he  blames  Hooper  for  not  coolly  canvassing  the  point 
among  his  friends,  which  would  have  prevented  that 
heat  of  preaching,  which  then  could  hardly  be  allayed. 
Hooper  himself,  who  was  a  popular  preacher,  and  soon 
after  silenced,  declaimed  liberally  on  the  subject.  Nor 
was  he  without  seconds  in  his  cause ;  John  a  Lasco  was 
entirely  of  his  opinion,  and  many  of  the  court  (as 
Martyr  heard)  favoured  him.  Nay  he  boasted,  that  the 
foreign  Churches,  and  particularly  the  two  professors, 
Bucer  and  Martyr,  sided  with  him  :  but  in  this  he  was 
mistaken,  for  John  a  Lasco,  who  warmly  espoused 
Hooper's  cause,  acknowledges  that  he  counselled  Hooper 


RIDLEY.  229 

to  give  out  confidently,  that  all  the  foreigners  then  in 
England  were  of  his  opinion  ;  for  being  so  straitened 
in  time,  that  he  had  no  opportunity  of  asking  their 
judgment,  he  boldly  ventured  to  strengthen  his  cause 
by  the  patronage  of  their  names :  but  in  this  both 
Hooper  and  a  Lasco  were  greatly  too  forward,  and  dis- 
appointed in  the  event.  These  flames  of  contention 
alarmed  the  council ;  they  knew  not  how  far  they  might 
reach,  nor  what  confusion  might  be  introduced  by  them. 
Therefore,  October  3rd,  they  sent  for  Hooper,  and 
required  him  to  cease  the  occasion  of  this  controversy, 
by  conforming  himself  to  the  laws.  Hooper  humbly 
besought  them,  that,  for  declaration  of  his  doings,  he 
might  put  in  writing  such  arguments  as  moved  him 
to  be  of  the  opinion  which  he  held.  This  was  granted 
him ;  and  he  offered  a  Book  to  the  Council  against 
the  use  of  those  habits  which  were  then  used  by  the 
Church  of  England  in  her  sacred  ministries.  The  next 
Sunday,  October  6th,  the  Council  wrote  to  the  Bishop 
of  London,  that  "whereas  there  had  been  some  dif- 
ference between  him  and  the  Elect  of  Gloucester,  upon 
certain  ceremonies  belonging  to  the  making  a  Bishop, 
wherein  their  lordships  desire  is,  because  they  would 
in  nowise  be  stirring  up  of  controversies  between  men 
of  one  profession,  that  he  would  cease  the  occasion 
thereof.  The  bishop  humbly  required  that  as  the  Elect 
of  Gloucester  had  leave  to  offer  in  writing  his  reasons 
for  dissenting,  he  also  in  his  own  justification  might 
put  in  writing  such  arguments  as  moved  him  to  be  of 
the  opinion  which  he  held."  This  was  granted,  and  he 
had  orders  to  attend  the  council  the  next  Sunday,  and 
to  bring  with  him  such  answer  as  he  thought  convenient. 
Part  of  Hooper's  Book,  says  Dr.  Gloucester  Eidley,  I 
have  by  me  in  M.S.,  but  Ridley's  Answer  I  have  never 
seen  :  yet  by  a  Letter  from  John  a  Lasco,  I  find  that 
it  was  not  only  defensive;  for,  besides  answering 
Hooper's  arguments,  some  objections  were  added ;  which 
VOL.  vriL  X 


•>30  RIDLEY. 

Hooper  by  another  writing  endeavoured  to  refute.  And 
this  refutation  was  again  refuted  in  a  pretty  long 
answer  from  the  bishop  and  it  appears  that  the  council 
were  so  well  satisfied  that  Hooper's  stiffness  was  more 
tlian  reasonable,  in  standing  out  still  against  any  com- 
pliance, that  even  his  great  friends  forsook  him,  and 
forthwith  commanded  him  to  keep  his  house,  unless  it 
were  to  go  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  the 
Bishops  of  London,  Ely,  or  Lincoln,  for  counsel  and 
satisfaction  of  his  conscience. 

In  June,  1550,  the  Bishop  of  London  held  his  pri- 
mary visitation,  and  directed  that  the  Romish  altars 
should  be  taken  down,  and  tables  substituted  in  their 
room. 

The  reasons  assigned  for  this  injunction  were : — 

1.  That  the  end  of  this  sacrament  was  to  eat  of 
Christ's  body,  and  to  drink  His  blood,  not  to  sacrifice 
and  crucify  Him  again :  the  end  therefore  required  a 
table  rather  than  an  altar. 

2.  It  is  sometimes  indeed  called  altar  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  as  that  on  which  the  sacrifice  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  is  offered;  but  it  is  also  called  the 
Lord's  table,  and  the  Lord's  board  indifferently,  without 
prescribing  any  particular  form.  So  that  this  injunction 
is  not  contrary  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

o.  The  Popish  opinion  was  that  an  altar  was  neces- 
sary for  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  which  superstitious 
opinion  was  kept  alive  by  the  continuance  of  altars  : 
therefore  the  removal  of  altars  was  necessary  for  abolish- 
ing that  superstitious  opinion. 

4.  An  altar  was  ordained  for  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  ; 
but  now  both  the  law  and  the  sacrifices  ceasing,  the 
altar  should  also  cease. 

5.  Christ  instituted  His  last  supper  at  a  table,  and 
not  upon  an  altar.  Nor  did  either  the  Apostles  or  the 
primitive  Church,  as  we  read  of,  ever  use  an  altar  in 
the  ministration  of  the  Holy  Communion.      Therefore 


RIDLEY.  231 

a  table,  as  more  agreeing  with  Christ's  institution  and 
primitive  practice  is  rather  to  be  used  than  an  altar. 

6.  Because  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  leaves  it  to 
the  diocesan  to  determine,  if  any  doubt  arises  about  the 
practice  of  it. 

He  was  soon  after  engaged  with  the  archbishop  in 
drawing  up  the  forty- two  articles.  (See  Life  of  Crafimer.J 
In  the  year  following,  he  visited  his  old  college  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  on  his  return  called  at  Hansdon,  to  pay 
his  respects  to  the  Princess  Mary,  afterwards  known 
as  the  bloody  queen.  The  arrogance,  insolence,  and 
bitterness  of  her  nature  she  displayed  on  this  occasion, 
in  the  insults  she  offered  to  the  venerable  prelate.  In 
1553,  the  bishop  preached  before  Edward  VI.,  and  so 
effectually  did  he  insist  upon  the  duty  of  almsgiving, 
beneficence,  and  charity,  that  the  king  sent  for  him 
to  inquire  how  he  might  best  put  into  practice  the  duties 
so  strongly  enforced.  The  bishop  conferred  upon  the 
subject  with  the  lord  mayor  and  corporation  of  London. 
The  result  was  such  a  representation  of  the  different 
classes  of  objects  which  called  for  the  attention  of  huma- 
nity, as  determined  the  king  to  found,  or  incorporate 
anew,  and  endow  with  ample  revenues,  those  noble 
charitable  institutions,  Christ's,  Bartholomew's,  Bride- 
well, and  St,  Thomas's  hospitals. 

When,  after  the  death  of  King  Edward  VI.,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  raise  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  the 
throne.  Bishop  Ridley  was  induced  heartily  to  concur 
in  it  by  his  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  Refor 
mation.  Being  commanded  by  the  council  to  preach 
at  St.  Paul's,  and  to  recommend  Queen  Jane  to  the 
people,  he  obeyed  the  order  with  great  zeal  and  earnest 
ness,  pointing  out  the  dangerous  and  ruinous  conse- 
quences which  must  follow,  should  the  Princess  Mary 
succeed,  who  was  a  rigid  Papist,  determined  to  subvert 
the  true  religion  as  already  established,  and  to  betray 
the  kingdom  again  into  slavery  under  a  foreign  power. 


«32  KIDLEY. 

After  the  design  in  favour  of  Lady  Jane  had  miscarried, 
and  the  Princess  Mary  had  been  acknowledged  and 
proclaimed  queen,  Ridley  was  obliged  as  Bishop  of 
London  to  wait  upon  her  majesty,  expecting  doubtless 
to  be  accused  of  treason.  By  the  command  of  that 
bigotted  princess  he  was  sent  back  from  Framingham 
on  a  lame  horse,  and  committed  to  the  Tower  on  the 
26th  of  July,  1553,  to  be  proceeded  against,  not  as  a 
state  prisoner  for  treason,  but  for  heresy.  Notwith- 
standing this  treatment,  the  bishop  might  have  delivered 
himself  from  the  danger  which  threatened  him,  and 
recovered  the  queen's  favour,  if  he  would  have  brought 
the  weight  of  his  learning  and  authority  to  countenance 
her  proceedings  in  religion.  With  the  hope  of  winning 
him,  therefore,  he  was  treated  with  more  resjDect  and 
indulgence  than  the  other  prisoners  in  the  Tower, 
having  the  liberty  of  walking  about  in  it,  to  try  if  he 
would  vo-luntarily  go  to  mass.  In  the  meantime,  he 
was  very  desirous  of  conferring  with  Cranmer  and  Lati- 
mer, who  were  his  fellow  prisoners,  that  he  might  bring 
his  own  opinions  to  the  test,  and  either  correct  or  streng- 
then them  from  the  experience  of  those  veterans.  For 
this  purpose  they  had  several  conferences,  exchanging 
papers  and  letters  on  these  subjects.  When  Ridley  had 
been  about  eight  months  in  the  Tower,  he  was  con- 
veyed from  thence  to  Oxford,  together  with  Cranmer  and 
Latimer,  to  be  present  at  a  disputation,  when  it  was 
pretended  that  the  controversy  between  the  Papists  and 
Protestants  would  be  determined  by  a  fair  debate  be- 
tween the  most  eminent  divines  of  both  parties.  Of 
the  gratuitous  and  heartless  insults  offered  to  the  mar- 
tyrs, an  account  is  given  in  the  Lives  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  and  Bishop  Latimer.  The  important  point 
of  the  controversy  turned  on  the  subject  of  transub- 
stantiation.  The  Papists  represented  their  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  as  founded  on  these  three  firm  pillars. 
Scripture,  the  interpretation  of  the  primitive  writers, 
and  the  determination  of  the  Church. 


KIDLEY.  233 

The  Scripture  in  express  terms  affirms,  in  the  words 
of  Christ  Himself,  "  This  is  My  body  ;"  consequently,  say 
they,  this  was  transubstantiated  from  the  bread  it  had 
been,  into  the  body  of  Christ.  And  Christ  being  Truth 
itself  and  the  Wisdom  of  the  Father,  to  refuse  credit 
to  His  declarations,  or  to  suppose  that  when  He  said 
one  thing  He  meant  another,  is  impiety  and  infidelity. 

If  the  Protestants  expressed,  as  indeed  they  did,  the 
greatest  reverence  for  Christ's  words,  and  maintained 
that  they  themselves  understood  His  words  in  the  true 
sense,  while  the  adversaries  dishonour  Him  by  interpre- 
ting them  in  an  absurd  one  ;  the  Papists  urged  : — 
.  The  consent  of  antiquity;  for  that  all  the  primitive 
writers  interpret  the  words  as  the  Papists  do,  and  sub- 
mitting their  imaginations  to  the  wisdom  of  God,  boldly 
insist  upon  that  sense  which  the  Protestants  call  absurd  ; 
and  expressly  avow  that  Christ  bare  Himself  in  His  own 
hands :  that  he  did  eat  Himself,  ipse  cibus  et  conviva :  that 
He  took  His  flesh  to  heaven,  and  left  it  at  the  same  time  on 
earth.  And  that  while  He  sitteth  at  God's  right  hand, 
He  is  in  a  thousand  places  at  once  on  earth.  Unus  in 
multis,  idem,  in  diversis  locis.  Therefore  that  the 
Protestants  who  fly  to  a  figurative  interpretation,  con- 
vict themselves  of  holding  new  fangled  doctrines,  which 
they  lick  out  of  their  own  fingers,  contrary  to  all  the 
ancient  doctors  ;   and  contrary — 

To  the  determination  of  the  Church,  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth,  for  popes,  synods,  and  general 
councils  had  decreed  transubstantiation ;  which  the  Pro- 
testants themselves  do  not  deny. 

Now  would  it  have  been  a  sufficient  defence  in  these 
bishops  to  have  contented  themselves  with  disavowing 
the  authority  of  all  the  ancient  fathers  and  the  Church 
through  all  ages ;  and  to  have  insisted  that  although 
they  were  all  against  the  Protestant  opinion,  yet  the 
Protestant  opinion  was  right,  and  all  the  fathers  and 
the  Church  quite  mistaken  from  our  Saviour's  time 
X  3 


234  RIDLEY. 

down  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Or  would 
it  have  been  as  wise  a  part  in  them,  by  their  silence,  or 
by  disavowing  the  authority  as  insufficient,  to  have  con- 
ceded to  their  adversaries,  that  all  this  authority  was 
against  them,  when  they  could,  and  did  prove  the  con- 
trary? as  may  be  seen  in  Cranmer's  "Defence  of  the 
true  and  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  our  Saviour  Christ ;"  and  Ridley's 
"  Brief  Treatise  of  the  most  Blessed  Sacrament  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ;"  and  in  his  Preface  to  the 
Disputation. 

As  to  Scripture,  Ridley  observes  the  four  evangelists 
and  St.  Paul  do  agree,  saying,  that  "  Jesus  took  bread, 
gave  thanks,  brake  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples,  saying, 
take,  eat,  this  is  My  body."  Here  it  appeareth  plainly 
that  Christ  called  very  bread  His  body :  but  say  the 
Papists,  (that  is.  Innocent  III.,  Duns  Scotus,  and  their 
followers)  when  He  gave  thanks  and  blessed  the  bread, 
He  changed  its  substance ;  so  that  He  brake  not  bread, 
which  then  was  not  there,  but  only  the  form  thereof. 
But  St.  Paul  saith  it  still  continueth  bread  after  the 
consecration ;  "  the  bread  which  we  break  is  it  not  the 
partaking  or  fellowship  of  the  Lord's  body  ?  "  Where- 
upon it  followeth,  that  after  the  thanksgiving  it  is  bread 
which  we  break.  And  how  often  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  is  the  Lord's  Supper  signified  by  breaking  of 
bread  ?  And  that  the  natural  substance  of  the  wine 
continues  is  proved  from  the  words  of  Christ ;  for  after 
he  had  said  of  the  cup,  "  This  is  My  blood  of  the  New 
Testament,"  he  says  expressly,  "  I  will  not  drink  hence- 
forth of  this  fruit  of  the  vinetree,  until  that  day  when 
I  shall  drink  it  new  in  My  Father's  kingdom."  Here 
note,  how  Christ  calleth  plainly  His  cup  the  fruit  of  the 
vinetree :  but  the  fruit  of  the  vinetree  is  very  natural 
wine :  wherefore  the  very  natural  substance  of  the  wine 
doth  remain  still  in  the  Sacrament  of  Christ's  blood. 

And  as  they  are  not  transubstantiated  at  all,  but  con- 


KIDLEY.  235 

tinue  in  their  substance  what  they  were  before  conse- 
cration, that  is,  bread  and  wine,  so  neither  can  they 
be  transubstantiated  into  the  natural  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  but  are  received  in  remembrance  of  Him,  namely 
of  His  body  given  for  us,  and  of  His  blood  shed  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  They  (the  Protestants)  deny  the 
presence  of  Christ's  body  in  the  natural  substance  of  His 
human  and  assumpt  nature,  and  grant  the  presence  of 
the  same  by  grace,  that  is,  they  affirm  and  say,  that  the 
substance  of  the  natural  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is 
only  remaining  in  heaven,  and  so  shall  be  unto  the 
latter  day,  when  He  shall  come  again  in  glory  accom- 
panied with  the  angels  of  heaven  to  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead :  but  by  grace  the  same  body  of  Christ  is  here 
present  with  us ;  as  we  say  the  sun,  which  in  substance 
never  removeth  his  place  out  of  the  heavens,  is  yet 
present  here  by  his  beams,  light,  and  natural  influence, 
where  it  shineth  upon  the  earth.  For  all  grant  that 
St.  Paul's  words  require,  that  the  bread  which  we  break 
should  be  the  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ;  and 
that  the  cup  of  blessing  should  be  the  communion  of 
the  blood  of  Christ ;  and  also  that  he  who  eateth  of  that 
bread  and  drinketh  of  that  cup  unworthily,  should  be 
guilty  of  the  Lord's  death,  and  that  he  eats  and  drinks 
his  own  damnation,  not  considering  the  Lord's  body. 
Wherefore  the  Papists  did  most  falsely  and  injuriously 
accuse  the  Protestants  with  making  the  Sacrament  no 
better  than  a  piece  of  common  broken  bread,  and  but  a 
bare  sign  and  figure  to  represent  Christ.  Of  this  great 
injustice  and  misrepresentation  Ridley  complains,  and 
says,  Alas !  let  us  leave  lying,  and  speak  the  truth  every 
man  not  only  to  his  neighbour,  but  also  of  his  neigh- 
bour; for  we  are  all  members  one  of  another. 

Ridley  was  quite  as  successful  in  refuting  the  Romish 
heresy  by  reference  to  the  teaching  of  the  fathers  of 
the  primitive  Church,  although  there  is  not  space  to 
quote  his  references  in  this  article. 


236  RIDLEY. 

His  letters  written  during  his  confinement  are  of  the 
deepest  interest,  and  it  is  onlj  for  want  of  space  that  we 
reluctantly  omit  the  various  notices  which  have  come 
down  to  us  of  the  truly  Christian  way  in  which  this 
godly  man  met  the  persecutions  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected. No  sign  of  fanaticism  did  he  ever  exhibit;  he 
never  lost  his  presence  of  mind;  and  his  affectionate 
heart  was  to  the  last  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  all 
who  were  near  and  dear  to  him.  His  farewell  address 
is  one  of  the  most  affecting  productions  in  our  language, 
and  for  unpretending  eloquence  can  bear  comparison 
with  that  of  Gregory  Nazianzen. 

During  the  fortnight  in  which  he  continued  in  prison 
after  his  condemnation,  the  Popish  party,  as  though 
they  were  ashamed  to  sacrifice  a  man  of  such  acknow- 
ledged piety  and  learning,  tried  all  their  means  of 
persuasion  to  gain  him  to  their  cause.  Brookes,  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  in  great  simplicity  pointed  out  to  him 
the  only  method  of  being  reclaimed  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  which  was,  to  "  captivate  his  senses,  and  subdue 
his  reason ;"  and  then,  "  he  doubted  not  but  that  he 
might  be  easily  induced  to  acknowledge  one  Church 
with  them."  About  the  same  time.  Lord  Dacres,  who 
was  kinsman  to  Ridley,  offered  ten  thousand  pounds 
to  the  queen,  if  she  would  preserve  so  valuable  a  life. 
But  to  this  proposal  she  would  not  agree,  on  any  other 
condition  than  that  of  the  bishop's  recantation;  and 
Ridley,  with  the  spirit  of  a  primitive  martyr,  nobly 
refused  life  on  such  terms. 

On  the  15th  of  October,  which  was  the  day  preceding 
that  appointed  for  his  execution,  our  excellent  prelate 
was  degraded  from  priest's  orders  by  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  who  seems  to  have  considered  him  as  having 
before  invalidated  his  consecration  by  abjuring  the  pope. 
When  the  mummery  of  this  scene  was  finished,  Ridley 
prepared  himself  for  his  approaching  death,  which  a 
sound  judgment  and  a  good   conscience  enabled  him 


tllDLEY.  237 

to  regard  as  a  subject  of  joy  and  triumpli.  He  called 
it  his  marriage,  and  in  the  evening  washed  his  beard 
and  legs,  and  supped  in  company  with  his  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Shipside,  and  some  other  friends,  behaving  with 
the  utmost  cheerfulness.  When  they  rose  from  table, 
Mr.  Shipside  offered  to  watch  all  night  with  him ;  but 
he  would  not  suffer  him,  saying,  that  he  intended  (God 
willing)  to  go  to  bed,  and  to  sleep  as  quietly  that  night, 
as  ever  he  did  in  his  life.  On  the  following  morning 
dressed  in  the  habit  which  he  used  to  wear  in  his 
episcopal  character,  he  walked  to  the  place  of  execution 
between  the  mayor  and  one  of  the  aldermen  of  Oxford ; 
and  seeing  Latimer  approach,  from  whom  he  had  been 
separated  after  their  condemnation,  he  ran  to  him  with 
a  cheerful  countenance,  embraced  him,  and  said,  "  Be 
of  good  heart,  brother,  for  God  will  either  assuage  the 
fury  of  the  flame,  or  else  strengthen  us  to  abide  it." 
Then  going  up  to  the  stake,  he  kneeled  down,  and  kiss- 
ing it,  prayed  with  great  fervour.  He  was  now  com- 
pelled to  hear  a  sermon  from  a  Popish  doctor,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  life  of  Latimer;  and,  after  it  was  ended, 
being  refused  permission  to  speak  a  few  sentences,  un- 
less he  recanted,  he  said,  "  Well,  so  long  as  the  breath 
is  in  my  body,  I  will  never  deny  my  Lord  Christ,  and 
His  known  truth.  God's  will  be  done  in  me !  "  He  was 
then  stripped  to  his  shirt,  and  fastened  by  an  iron  chain 
to  the  same  stake  with  Bishop  Latimer.  At  this  instant, 
when  a  cruel  death  awaited  him,  Ridley  shewed  a  won- 
derful greatness  of  mind  and  self-possession,  in  being 
so  regardless  of  his  own  sufferings,  as  to  spend  some  of 
his  last  moments  in  solicitations  for  the  interests  and 
happiness  of  others.  He  made  it  his  dying  request  to 
Lord  Williams,  that  he  would  support  by  his  interest  a 
supplication  which  he  had  made  to  the  queen  on  behalf 
of  his  sister ;  and  that  his  lordship  would  also  interfere 
in  favour  of  some  poor  men,  who  had  taken  leases  of 
Ridley,  under  the  see  of  London,  which  his  successor 


SB8  RIDLEY. 

had  unjustly  and  illegally  refused  to  confirm.  All  pre- 
parations having  now  been  made,  a  kindled  faggot  was 
laid  at  Ridley's  feet,  who,  when  he  saw  the  fire  flaming 
up  towards  him,  with  a  loud  voice  commended  his  soul 
to  God.  Latimer  soon  expired ;  but,  by  some  misman- 
agement of  the  fire  on  Ridley's  side  of  the  stake,  the 
flames  were  prevented  from  reaching  the  upper  part  of 
his  body,  and  his  legs  were  consumed  before  the  fire 
approached  the  vital  parts,  which  made  him  endure 
dreadful  torments  for  a  long  time.  At  length  his  suffer- 
ings were  terminated  by  the  explosion  of  a  bag  of  gun- 
powder which  had  been  suspended  from  his  neck,  after 
which  he  did  not  discover  any  remaining  signs  of  life. 
Such  was  the  end  of  Bishop  Ridley!  In  his  private 
character,  he  was  a  pattern  of  piety,  humility,  tempe- 
rance, and  regularity,  to  all  around  him.  His  temper 
was  cheerful  and  agreeable ;  his  manners  courteous  and 
affable ;  and  of  the  benevolence  of  his  heart  he  gave 
abundant  proofs,  in  his  extraordinary  generosity  and 
liberality  to  the  poor.  Anthony  Wood  says  of  him,  that 
"  he  was  a  person  small  in  stature,  but  great  in  learn- 
ing, and  profoundly  read  in  divinity,"  Among  other 
pieces  he  was  the  author  of  "A  Treatise  concerning 
Images,  not  to  be  set  up  nor  worshipped,  in  Churches," 
written  in  the  time  of  King  Edward  VI. ;  "  Brief  Decla- 
ration of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  first  printed  in  1555,  8vo, 
written  during  his  imprisonment  at  Oxford,  and  tran- 
slated into  Latin  by  William  Whittyngham ;  "  Certain 
godly  and  comfortable  Conferences"  between  him  and 
Latimer,  during  the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  first 
printed  in  1555,  8vo.  ;  "  A  friendly  Farewell  unto  all 
his  true  Lovers,"  written  during  his  imprisonment,  a 
little  before  his  death,  and  printed  in  1559,  8vo ;  "A 
pious  Lamentation  of  the  miserable  State  of  the  Church 
of  England,  in  the  Time  of  the  late  Revolt  from  the 
Gospel,"  8vo ;  "  A  Comparison  between  the  comfortable 
Doctrine  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Traditions  of  the  Popish 


RIDLEY,  GLOUCESTER.  239 

Religion,"  printed  with  the  former;  "An  Account  of  a 
Disputation  at  Oxford  in  1554,"  written  in  Latin,  and 
published  from  the  original  manuscript  in  1688,  4to, 
by  Dr.  Gilbert  Ironside,  warden  of  Wadham-college  ; 
"A  Treatise  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,"  published  with 
the  former;  and  "A  Letter  of  Reconciliation  written  to 
Bishop  Hooper,"  published  by  Samuel  Johnson,  in  1689, 
4to.  Many  of  his  "  Letters,"  and  also  some  of  the  pieces 
mentioned  above,  have  been  published  by  Fox  in  his 
"Acts  and  Monuments,"  and  may  likewise  be  seen  in 
Gloucester  Ridley's  Life  of  Bishop  Ridley. — Bidley's 
Life  of  Ridley.     Strype. 


RIDLEY,    GLOUCESTER, 

Gloucester  Ridley  was  born  on  board  the  Gloucester, 
East  Indiaman,  whence  his  Christian  name,  in  1702, 
and  was  educated  at  Winchester  and  New  College. 
For  a  great  part  of  his  life  he  had  no  other  preferment 
than  the  small  living  of  Weston  Longueville,  in  Norfolk, 
and  the  donative  of  Poplar,  in  Middlesex,  where  he 
resided.  To  these  his  college  added,  some  years  after, 
the  donative  of  Romford,  in  Essex. 

In  1740  and  1742  he  preached  eight  sermons  at 
Lady  Moyer's  lecture,  which  were  pubhshed  in  1742, 
8vo.  In  1763  he  published  the  Life  of  Bishop  Ridley, 
in  4to.  In  1765  he  published  his  Review  of  Philip's 
Life  of  Cardinal  Pole.  In  1761,  in  reward  for  his 
labours  in  this  controversy,  and  in  another  which  the 
confessional  produced,  he  was  presented  by  Archbishop 
Seeker  to  a  golden  prebend  at  Salisbury.  He  died  in 
1774.  Two  poems  by  Dr.  Ridley,  one  styled,  Jovi 
Eleutherio,  or  an  Offering  to  Liberty,  and  the  other 
called  Pysche,  were  printed  in  Dodsley's  Collection. 
Melampus,  the  sequel  of  the  latter,  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished by  subscription.     In  1761  he  published,  in  4to, 


•240  ROBERTS. 

De  Sjriacarum  Novi  Foederis  Versionum  indole  atque 
usu,  Dissertatio,  occasioned  by  a  Sjriac  version,  which, 
with  two  others,  were  sent  to  him  nearly  thirty  years 
before,  by  one  Mr.  Samuel  Palmer  from  Amida,  in 
Mesopotamia.  His  age  and  growing  infirmities,  the 
great  expence  of  printing,  and  the  want  of  a  patron, 
l^revented  him  from  availing  himself  of  these  MSS  ;  yet 
at  intervals  he  employed  himself  on  a  transcript,  which 
was  published  by  professor  White,  with  a  literal  Latin 
translation,  in  2  vols.,  4 to,  at  the  expense  of  the  dele- 
gates of  the  Clarendon  Press. — Gent.  Mag. 


ETNALDI,    0D0R[C. 

Odoric  Rinaldi  was  born  in  1595  at  Treviso,  and  was 
educated  at  Parma  under  the  Jesuits.  He  became  an 
Oratorian  at  Rome  in  1618.  Of  the  congreagation  of 
the  Oratory,  Baronius  was  a  member,  after  whose  death, 
Rinaldi  was  employed  in  continuing  his  Ecclesiastical 
Annals,  from  1198,  with  which  the  work  of  Baronius 
terminated,  to  1564,  when  the  council  of  Trent  was 
dissolved.  This  continuation  consists  of  ten  large  vol- 
umes in  folio,  which  made  their  appearance  in  Rome 
at  different  periods  from  1646  to  1677.  Rinaldi  pub- 
lished a  sufficiently  copious  abridgment,  in  Italian,  of 
the  whole  annals  compiled  both  by  Baronius  and  him- 
self, which  is  said  to  be  a  masterly  performance. — Biog. 
Universelle. 

ROBERTS,    FRANCIS. 

Francis  Roberts,  a  Puritan,  was  born  in  Yorkshire  in 
]609.  He  took  his  degrees  in  arts,  at  Trinity  College, 
Oxford ;  after  which  he  became  minister  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, Watling-street,  and  rector  of  Wrington,  in  Somer- 
setshire.    In  ]67'2,  he  w^ent  to  Ireland  with  the  Earl  of 


ROGERS.  Q41 

Essex ;  and  while  there  was  made  doctor  of  divinity. 
He  died  at  Wrington  in  1675.  His  principal  work  is 
entitled  "  Clavis  Bibliorum,  the  Key  of  the  Bible,"  2 
vols.  8vo,  1649  ;  and  again  in  folio,  1675.  He  pubhshed 
besides  some  single  sermons,  "  The  Believer's  Evidence 
for  Eternal  Life;"  "The  Communicant  Instructed;" 
"  Clavis  Bibliorum,  the  Key  of  the  Bible,  including  the 
order,  names,  times,  penmen,  occasion,  scope,  and  prin- 
cipal matter  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament;"  "  Myste- 
rium  et  Medulla  Bibliorum,  or  the  Mystery  and  Marrow 
of  the  Bible ;"  and,  "  The  True  Way  to  the  Tree  of 
Life." — Watkin's  Universal  Biog.  Vict. 


KOELL,    HERMANN    ALEXANDER. 

Hermann  Alexander  Roell  was  born  in  1653,  at 
Doelberg,  in  Westphalia.  He  was  educated  first  at 
Unna,  and  then  at  Utrecht.  In  1686,  he  accepted  the 
offer  of  a  professorship  in  divinity  from  the  University 
of  Franeker.  In  1704,  he  was  appointed  to  the  divinity 
chair  of  Utrecht,  and  he  retained  that  post  till  his  death, 
in  1718.  Among  his  publications  are  : — "A  Commentary 
upon  the  Commencement  of  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to 
the  Ephesians ;"  "  the  second  part  of  the  same,  with  An 
Analysis  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians ;"  "  An  Ana- 
lysis and  Abridgment  of  the  Prophetical  Books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament;"  and,  "  An  Explication  of  the 
Catechism  of  Heidelberg. — Chaufepie. 


ROGERS,    JOHN. 

John  Rogers,  the  first  who  suffered  martyrdom  for  the 
principles  of  the  English  Reformation  in  the  days  of 
Mary,  was*  educated  at  Cambridge  ;  the  time  and  place 
of  his  birth  are  not  mentioned.  Soon  after  he  was 
vol.  yiii.  ¥ 


242  ROGERS. 

ordained,  the  company  of  merchant  adventurers,  as  they 
were  then  called,  appointed  him  their  chaplain  at 
Antwerp,  where  he  remained  for  many  years.  This  proved 
also  the  means  of  his  conversion  from  Popery,  for  meet- 
ing there  with  Tyndale  and  Coverdale,  he  was  induced 
by  their  conversation  to  examine  the  points  in  contro- 
versy more  closely,  the  result  of  which  was  his  em- 
bracing the  sentiments  of  the  Reformers.  He  also  joined 
with  these  colleagues  in  making  the  first  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  English,  which  appeared  at  Ham- 
burgh, in  1532,  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Matthew. 
Rogers  was  corrector  of  the  press  on  this  occasion,  and 
translated  that  part  of  the  Apocrypha  which  was  left 
unfinished  by  Tyndale,  and  also  contributed  some  of 
the  marginal  notes.  At  Antwerp  he  married,  and  thence 
w^ent  to  Wittemberg,  and  was  chosen  pastor  of  a  Dutch 
congregation  there,  w^hich  office  he  discharged  until  the 
accession  of  Edward  VI.,  when  Bishop  Ridley  invited 
him  home,  and  made  him  prebendary  and  divinity 
reader  of  St.  Paul's.  Mary  made  her  triumphal  entry 
into  London,  August  o,  1553;  and  Rogers  had  the 
boldness  to  preach  a  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  on  the 
following  Sunday,  in  which  he  exhorted  the  people  to 
abide  by  the  doctrine  taught  in  King  Edward's  days, 
and  to  resist  Popery  in  all  its  forms  and  superstitions. 
For  this  he  was  immediately  called  before  the  privy 
council,  in  which  were  several  of  the  restored  Popish 
bishops ;  but  he  appears  to  have  defended  himself  so 
ably,  that  he  was  dismissed  unhurt.  This  security, 
however,  was  not  of  long  duration,  and  two  days  before 
Mary  issued  her  proclamation  against  preaching  the 
Reformed  doctrines,  (August  18)  he  was  ordered  to  re- 
main a  prisoner  in  his  own  house  at  St.  Pauls ;  thence 
after  six  months  he  was  removed  to  Newgate  ;  and  in 
January,  1555,  he  underwent  an  examination  before 
Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  an  interestiilg  account 
of  which  is  given  by  Fox. 


nOGERg.  243 

It  is  impossible  within  our  prescribed  limits  to  tran- 
scribe the  whole,  but  the  following  conversation  will 
give  his  view  of  the  subject  of  the  royal  supremacy. 
The  Lord  Chancellor  Gardiner  asked  him  whether  he 
would  conform  to  the  Catholic  Church  : — 

Bogers. — "  The  Catholicke  Church  I  never  didde  nor 
will  dissent  from." 

Lord  Chancellor. — "  Nay,  but  I  speak  of  the  state  of 
Catholicke  Church,  in  that  wise  in  which  we  stand  now 
in  England,  having  received  the  pope  to  be  supreme 
head." 

Rog. — "  I  knowe  none  other  head  but  Christ  of  His 
Catholicke  Church;  neither  will  I  acknowledge  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  have  any  more  authoritie  than  any 
other  bishop  hath  by  the  word  of  God,  and  by  the  doc- 
trine of  the  olde  and  pure  Catholicke  Church  four  hun- 
dred yeares  aftor  Christ." 

L.  Chan. — "  Why  didst  thou  then  acknowledge  King 
Henrie  the  Eighth,  to  be  supreme  head  of  the  Church, 
if  Christ  be  the  onlie  head  ?  " 

Bog. — "I  never  granted  him  to  have  any  supremacie 
in  spirituall  things,  as  are  the  forgivenesse  of  sinnes, 
giving  of  the  Holie  Ghost,  authoritie  to  be  a  Judge  above 
the  word  of  God." 

*'  Yea,  saide  hee,  and  Tonstall  Bishop  of  Duresme, 
and  Heath  Bishop  of  Worcester,  if  thou  hadst  said  so  in 
his  daies  (and  they  nodded  the  head  at  me  with  a  laugh- 
ter) thou  hadst  not  beene  alive  now." 

On  another  occasion,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  being 
asked  againe  by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  whether  I  would 
come  into  one  Church  with  the  bishops  and  whole 
realme,  as  now  was  concluded  by  parliament,  (in  the 
which  all  the  realme  was  converted  to  the  Catholicke 
Church  of  Rome)  and  so  receive  the  mercy  before  pro- 
fered  me,  rising  again  with  the  whole  realme,  out  of 
the  schisme  and  errour  in  which  we  had  long  been, 
with  recantation  of  my  errors :  I  answered,  that  before 


244  ROGERS,  JOHN. 

I  could  not  tell  what  his  mercy  meant,  but  now  I  under- 
stoode  that  it  was  a  mercy  of  the  Antichristian  Church 
of  Rome,  which  I  utterly  refused,  and  that  the  rising 
which  hee  spake  of,  w-as  a  very  fall  into  errour  and  false 
doctrine.  Also  that  I  had  and  would  be  able  by  God's 
grace,  to  prove  that  all  the  doctrine  which  I  had  ever 
taught,  was  true  and  catholicke,  and  that  by  the  Scrip* 
tures,  and  the  authority  of  the  fathers  that  lived  four 
hundred  yeares  after  Christ's  death." 

The  issue  of  his  trial  was  his  condemnation,  and 
having  been  degraded  from  his  ministerial  orders  by 
the  hands  of  Bishop  Bonner,  in  New^gate,  he  was  sum- 
moned to  the  stake  on  Monday,  the  4th  of  February. 
Before  he  left  the  prison,  one  of  the  sheriffs  urged  him 
"  to  revoke  his  abominable  doctrines  and  his  evil  opinion 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar."  The  victim  answered 
firmly  :  "  That  which  I  have  preached  I  will  seal  with 
my  blood."  "  Thou  art  an  heretic,  then,"  said  the 
magistrate.  The  reply  was  :  "  That  will  be  seen  at  the 
day  of  judgment."  "  Well  then,"  rejoined  the  sheriff, 
"  I  will  never  pray  for  thee."  Rogers  meekly  said : 
*'  But  I  will  pray  for  tliee.'"  On  entering  the  street,  he 
found  an  immense  crowd  waiting  to  see  him,  by  whom 
he  was  received  with  every  demonstration  of  pious  res- 
pect and  gratitude.  He  passed  along  repeating  the 
fifty-first  psalm,  and  in  his  way  he  suffered  the  momen- 
tary pain  of  observing  among  the  afflicted  spectators, 
his  wife  and  ten  of  his  children :  an  eleventh  hanging 
unconsciously  at  its  mother's  breast.  Being  arrived  in 
Smithfield,  a  pardon  was  offered  to  him,  if  he  would 
recant.  But  his  holy  magnanimity  forsook  him  not, 
and  he  refused  the  proffered  clemency. — Stryjie.   Soames. 


ROGERS,    JOHN. 

John  Rogers  was  born,  in   1679,   at  Ensham,  in  Ox- 


ROGERS,  JOHN.  245 

fordshire.  He  was  educated  at  New  College  School,  at 
Oxford,  and  in  1693,  became  a  scholar  of  Corpus  Christi 
College.  He  was  presented  to  the  vicarage  of  Buckland, 
in  Berkshire;  and  in  1712,  he  went  to  London,  where 
he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Clement  Danes.  He 
afterwards  became  lecturer  of  the  united  parishes  of 
Christ  Church,  and  St.  Leonard's,  Foster-lane.  In 
1716,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  Wrington,  in 
Somersetshire  ;  and  some  time  after  he  was  elected  canon 
residentiary  of  the  Cathedral  of  Wells,  in  which  he  also 
bore  the  office  of  sub-dean.  In  1719,  he  engaged  in  the 
Bangorian  controversy,  and  published,  "  A  Discourse  of 
the  visible  and  invisible  Church  of  Christ:  in  which  it 
is  shown,  that  the  powers  claimed  by  the  officers  of  the 
visible  Church,  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  supremacy 
of  Christ  as  head,  or  with  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
Christians  as  members,  of  the  invisible  Church,"  8vo. 
Dr.  Sykes  having  published  an  answer,  Mr.  Rogers 
replied  to  him  in  "  A  Review  of  the  Discourse  of  the 
visible  and  invisible  Church  of  Christ."  In  1722,  the 
University  of  Oxford  conferred  on  him,  by  diploma,  the 
degree  of  D.D.  In  1726,  he  was  made  chaplain  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  II. ;  and  in  the 
following  year  he  published,  against  the  attacks  of  An- 
thony Collins,  in  his  "  Scheme  gf  Literal  Prophecy,"  a 
volume  of  sermons,  entitled,  "  The  Necessity  of  Divine 
Revelation,  and  the  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
asserted ;"  to  which  he  prefixed,  "  A  Preface,  with  Re- 
marks on  the  Scheme  of  Literal  Prophecy."  Collins 
having  written  "  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rogers,  on 
occasion  of  his  eight  Sermons  concerning  the  necessity 
of  Divine  Revelation,  and  the  Preface  prefixed  to  them," 
Dr.  Rogers  published,  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Civil 
Establishment  of  Religion,  wherein  some  positions  of 
Mr.  Chandler,  the  author  of  the  Literal  Scheme,  &c.. 
and  an  Anonymous  Letter  on  that  subject,  are  occasion- 
ally considered.     With  an  Appendix,  containing  a  Letter 

Y  3 


S46  ROMAINE.    , 

from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Marshall,  and  an  Answer  to  the  same, 

1728,  8vo." 

In  1728,  Rogers  reluctantly  accepted  the  vicarage  of 
St.  Giles',  Cripplegate,  in  London.  He  did  not  enjoy  his 
new  preferment  above  six  months;  for  he  died  May  1, 

1729,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age.  After  his  decease 
several  of  his  sermons  were  published ;  and  two  tracts — 
Reasons  against  Conversion  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and,  A  Persuasive  to  Conformity,  addressed  to  Dissen- 
ters.— Life  hy  Burton,  prefixed  to  his  Sermons. 


EOMAINE,    WILLIAM. 

William  Romaine,  the  son  of  a  French  Protestant  who 
came  to  England  on  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  was  born  at  Hartlepool,  in  1714,  and  was 
educated  at  the  Grammar  School  of  Houghton-le-Spring. 
Thence  he  went  to  Hertford  College,  Oxford ;  but  re- 
moved from  thence  to  Christ  Church,  where,  in  1737,  he 
took  his  degree  of  master  of  arts.  One  of  his  first 
sermons  before  the  university,  was  directed  against 
Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  which  produced 
a  bitter  reply  from  that  powerful  writer.  After  this, 
Mr.  Romaine  engaged  in  an  edition  of  Calasio's  Hebrew 
Concordance,  into  which  he  introduced  some  alterations, 
to  serve  the  Hutchinsonian  system.  In  1748,  he  ob- 
tained the  lectureship  of  St.  Botolph,  Bishopgate;  the 
year  following  he  was  chosen  lecturer  of  St.  Dunstan, 
in  the  West ;  and  in  1750,  he  was  appointed  assistant 
morning  preacher  at  St.  George's,  Hanover-square.  Soon 
after  this  he  was  elected  Gresham  professor  of  astronomy, 
which  situation  he  soon  resigned.  He  obtained  such 
popularity  by  his  opposition  to  the  bill  for  the  naturali- 
zation of  the  Jews,  that  his  publications  on  that  subject 
were  printed  by  the  corporation  of  London. 

In  1764,  he  was  chosen  rector  by  the  inhabitants  of 


ROSCELLIN.  047 

St.  Andrew's  by  the  Wardrobe,  and  St.  Anne's  Black- 
friars.  This  election  produced  a  suit  in  Chancery, 
which  was  decided  in  his  favour  in  1776.  In  this  situa- 
tion he  continued  for  thirty  years.  He  died  on  the 
26th  of  July,  1795.  Besides  the  works  already  men- 
tioned, he  wrote  a  Comment  on  the  107th  Psalm; 
Twelve  Sermons  upon  Solomon's  Song;  Twelve  Dis- 
courses upon  the  Law  and  Gospel ;  The  Life  of  Faith. 
— Life  by  Cadogan. 


ROQUES,    PETER. 

Peter  Roques  was  born  at  Caune,  in  Languedoc, 
in  1685.  He  was  minister  of  a  French  congregation 
at  Basle,  being  appointed  in  1719,  and  at  Basle  he 
died  in  1748. 

He  wrote  : — The  Evangelical  Pastor ;  this  is  a  popular 
work:  Elements  of  the  Historical,  Dogmatical,  and 
Moral  Truths  contained  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures ;  and 
Genuine  Pietism.  He  also  edited  Moreri's  Dictionary  ; 
Saurin's  Discourses  on  the  Old  and  New  Testament; 
Martin's  Translation  of  the  Bible,  with  prefaces,  cor- 
rections, notes,  and  parallel  passages,  in  2  vols.  4to ; 
Basnage's  Dissertation  on  Duelling,  and  Orders  of 
Chivalry ;  various  theological  and  critical  Dissertations  ; 
controversial  Treatises;  and  numerous  papers  inserted 
in  the  Journal  Helvetique,  and  the  Bibliotheque  Ger- 
manique. — Moreri. 


ROSCELLIN,     OR    ROUSSELIN,    JOHN. 

John  Roscellin,  or  Rousselin,  a  Schoolman,  the  founder 
of  the  Nominalists,  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
and  the  beginning  of  the  12th  century,  and  was  a  native 
of  the  French   Province  of  Bretagne.     Having  distin- 


248  ROSCELLIN. 

guished  himself  in  the  literature  of  the  times,  he  was 
appointed  to  a  canonrj  of  the  Church  of  Cornelius,  at 
Compiegne,  in  the  Diocese  of  Soissons. 

The  practice  of  Dialectics,  and  the  questions  arising 
out  of  a  disputed  passsage  in  Porj^hyry's  Introduction 
to  the  Organum  of  Aristotle,,  respecting  the  different 
metaphysical  opinions  entertained  by  the  Platonists 
and  Peripatetics  of  the  nature  of  General  Ideas,  were 
the  causes  which  led  to  the  division  between  the  Nomi- 
nalists and  Piealists,  the  latter  adhering  to  Plato,  the 
first  to  Aristotle :  disputes  which  stirred  up  frequent 
and  angry  debates  in  the  schools,  without  any  other 
result  than  that  of  sharpening  their  powers  of  argu- 
mentation. This  long  discussion  was  begun  by  Ilos- 
cellin,  who,  (on  the  testimony  of  his  adversaries,)  main- 
tained that  the  ideas  of  Genus  and  Species  were  nothing 
but  mere  words  and  terms  (flatus  vocis,)  which  we  use 
to  designate  qualities  common  to  different  individual 
objects.  He  was  led  on  by  this  doctrine  to  some  here- 
tical opinions  respecting  the  Trinity,  which  he  was  ulti- 
mately compelled  to  retract  at  Soissons,  a.d.  1092.  It 
is  certain  that  Eoscellin  is  the  first  author  who  obtained 
the  appellation  of  a  Nominalist,  and  from  his  time  the 
school  previously  established,  which  held  the  creed  that 
Genus  and  Species  were  real  essences,  or  types  and 
moulds  of  things,  (Universalia  ante  rem  according  to 
the  phrase  of  the  Schoolmen,)  was  throughout  the  pre- 
sent period  perpetually  opposed  to  Nominalism,  whose 
partisans  maintained  that  the  Universalia,  subsisted  only 
in  re,  or  2)ost  rem  :  nor  was  the  difficulty  ever  definitively 
settled. 

With  respect  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  he  held 
it  to  be  inconceivable  and  impossible  that  the  Son  of 
God  should  assume  the  human  nature  alone,  that  is, 
without  the  Father  and  the  Holy  G  host  becoming  Incar- 
nate also,  unless  by  the  Three  Persons  in  the  Godhead 
were  meant  three  distinct  objects  or  natures   existing 


ROSE.  249 

separately  (such  as  three  angels  or  three  distinct  spirits,) 
though  endued  with  one  will  and  acting  by  one  power. 

Having  visited  England  he  here  excited  a  controversy 
of  another  kind,  by  maintaining,  among  other  things, 
that  persons  born  out  of  lawful  wedlock  ought  to  be 
deemed  incapable  of  admission  to  holy  orders.  Some 
even  of  the  prelates  being  in  this  condition,  Roscellin 
made  very  powerful  enemies,  among  whom  was  Anselm, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  and  he  was  finally  obliged 
to  quit  England.  He  then  went  to  Paris,  and  by 
propagating  his  doctrine  concerning  the  Trinity,  occa- 
sioned such  contests  as  made  him  glad  to  retire  to 
Aquitaine,  where  he  passed  the  rest  of  his  days  un- 
molested. He  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1106. 
None  of  his  writings  are  extant. — Tennemann.  Moreri. 
Mosheim. 


EOSE,    ALEXANDER. 

Alexander  Rose.  (See  the  Life  of  Sage.)  Of  this 
venerable  and  excellent  prelate  we  have  the  following 
brief  memoir  in  the  Life  of  Bishop  Sage,  published  by 
the  Spottiswoode  Society : — "  Born  of  an  ancient  family 
in  the  North  of  Scotland,  he  was  educated  and  gradu- 
ated at  King's  College,  Aberdeen ;  but  went  through  a 
theological  course  at  Glasgow  under  the  tuition  of  Dr. 
Gilbert  Burnet,  afterwards  minister  of  Saltoun,  in  Had- 
dingtonshire, and  the  well-known  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 
Having  been  admitted  into  holy  orders,  his  first  pre- 
ferment was  the  parish  of  Perth,  which  he  left  for  the 
appointment  of  professor  of  divinity  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow.  In  1684,  through  the  influence  of  his 
uncle,  the  Primate  of  all  Scotland,  he  was  nominated 
by  the  crown  to  the  Principality  of  St.  Mary's  College, 
in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews.  But  his  piety  and 
talents    recommended    him   for   elevation    to   a  higher 


2  50  HOSE. 

sphere  of  usefulness.  Accordingly,  in  1687,  the  royal 
mandate  was  issued  for  his  consecration  to  the  See  of 
Moray,  in  the  room  of  Bishop  Colin  Falconer  deceased; 
but  the  Diocese  of  Edinburgh  becoming  vacant  in  the 
same  year  by  the  translation  of  Bishop  Patterson  to 
Glasgow,  Dr.  Rose  was  selected  as  his  successor,  and 
was  translated  to  Edinburgh  'before,'  says  Keith,  'he 
had  taken  possession  of  the  See  of  Moray.'  Of  this 
illustrious  prelate  in  his  high  position  in  the  episcopate, 
much  has  been  already  written  by  various  authors; 
and  his  journey  to  London  at  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
his  affecting  interview  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  by 
which  the  destiny  of  the  Episcopal  Church  as  an  Estab- 
lishment was  sealed,  and  his  noble  answer  when  asked 
to  follow  the  example  of  those  English  Bishops  who 
joined  the  standard  of  William,  are  so  well  known  that 
they  need  not  be  repeated  here.  Deprived  of  his  cathe- 
dral, spoiled  of  his  revenues,  and  stripped  of  his  civil 
dignities,  this  excellent  man  continued  after  the  Revo- 
lution and  overthrow  of  the  Church  in  Scotland,  to 
exercise  the  authority  of  a  successor  of  the  Apostles,  of 
which  no  efforts  of  man  could  deprive  him ;  and  under 
his  auspices  the  sacred  ark  was  directed  during  those 
trying  and  stormy  times,  when  the  face  of  the  civil  power 
was  turned  against  the  Church,  and  the  '  arm  of  flesh' 
was  lifted  up  in  the  vain  endeavour  to  root  out  Catho- 
licity from  Scotland.  He  is  described  by  a  contemporary 
as  '  a  sweet-tempered  man,  and  of  a  venerable,  aspect;' 
and  these  things,  his  excellent  disposition  and  benign 
appearance,  combined  with  his  discretion,  seem  com- 
pletely to  have  disarmed  the  Presbyterians,  even  in  those 
days  of  keen  party  spirit,  and  incautious  malevolence 
between  persons  attached  to  opposite  and  hostile  inte- 
rests, for  we  do  not  find  that  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
ever  ventured  to  assail  with  false  and  malicious  asper- 
sions the  character  of  this  genuine  servant  of  God. 
Having  outlived  all  the  brethren  of  his  order,  and  like* 


EU.E,  DE  LA.  951 

wise  all  the  Bishops  of  England  who  had  possessed  sees 
before  the  Kevolution,  he  remained  as  the  remnant  of  a 
band  hallowed  by  their  sufferings  for  conscience  sake  ; 
and  his  grey  hairs  went  down  to  the  grave  with  the  re- 
spect of  the  clergy  of  his  own  communion,  and  of  the 
laity  of  both  nations,  who,  whatever  were  their  opinions 
upon  the  question,  admired  the  firm  integrity  of  prin- 
ciple which  actuated  the  Scottish  prelates  in  their  refusal 
to  recognize  the  government  of  William  and  Mary,  and 
the  dignified  patience  with  which  they  submitted  to  the 
loss  of  all  those  things  which  absorb  and  engage  men's 
attention  and  time.  He  died  in  March,  17*20,  and  his 
mortal  remains  were  interred  in  the  Church  of  Restalrig, 
near  Edinburgh,  the  cemetery  of  which,  from  its  re- 
tired situation  and  other  causes,  was  much  used  by  the 
persecuted  Episcopalians  as  a  resting-place  for  their 
departed  friends." 


ROTHEEAM,  (see  Scott.J 


EUE,    CHARLES    DE    LA. 

Charles  de  la  Rue.  There  are  two  French  divines  of 
this  name;  the  first,  a  Jesuit,  was  born  at  Paris,  in 
1643,  and  died  in  17j^5.  He  determined  to  become 
a  popular  preacher.  He  took  lessons  in  the  art  of  de- 
claiming from  the  celebrated  actor  Baron,  with  whom 
he  was  well  acquainted.  He  became  the  favourite 
preacher  at  court  and  in  the  capital.  Voltaire  says 
that  he  had  two  sermons,  entitled,  "  The  sinner  dying," 
and  "  The  sinner  dead,"  which  were  so  popular,  that 
public  notice  was  given  by  bills  when  they  were  to  be 
delivered.  It  was  thought  extraordinary  that  one  who 
so  much  excelled  in  reciting  should  set  the  example  of 
reading  his  discourses,  instead  of  repeating  them  from 


252  RUE,  DE  LA. 

memory ;  but  he  asserted  that  not  only  time  was  saved 
by  the  indulgence,  but  that  the  preacher,  at  ease  with 
his  notes  before  him,  could  deliver  himself  with  more 
animation.  He  was  sent,  after  the  dragoons  had  done 
their  part,  to  make  converts  among  the  Protestants  in 
the  Cevennes,  and  had  considerable  success.  Like  many 
of  his  society,  he  joined  talents  for  conversation,  and 
the  manners  of  the  polite  world,  to  the  qualifications  of 
a  scholar  and  a  divine,  and  he  was  chosen  by  the  Dau- 
phiness  and  the  Duke  of  Berry  for  their  confessor. 
His  Latin  poems  in  four  books,  consisting  of  tragedies 
and  miscellaneous  pieces,  have  been  several  times 
printed.  His  French  works  are.  Panegyrics  of  Saints, 
Funeral  Orations,  and  Sermons.  He  was  one  of  the 
learned  men  employed  in  the  Dolphin  editions  of  the 
classics,  and  Virgil  fell  to  his  share,  first  printed  in 
1675,  4to. 

The  other  Charles  de  la  Rue  was  a  Benedictine  of 
St.  Maur,  and  was  born,  in  1684,  at  Corbie,  in  Picardy. 
Becoming  a  friend  of  Montfaucon  he  was  persuaded  by 
him  to  prepare  an  edition  of  all  the  works  of  Origen, 
the  Hexapla  excepted.  Accordingly  de  la  Rue  applied 
himself  to  this  task  with  becoming  diligence,  and  in 
1783  published  the  two  first  volumes,  in  folio,  with  pro- 
legomena, and  learned  and  useful  notes.  The  third 
volume  was  ready  for  the  press  in  1757,  when  he  was 
compelled  to  devolve  the  superintendence  of  the  impres- 
sion on  his  nephew  Vincent  de  la  Rue,  a  learned  mem- 
ber of  the  same  order,  whom  he  had  chosen  as  an  assis- 
tant in  his  labours.  Charles  de  la  Rue  was  carried  off 
by  a  paralytic  attack  in  1739,  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of 
his  age.  From  his  papers  his  nephew  carefully  printed 
the  third  volume  of  Origen ;  and  with  the  aid  of  his 
materials  he  completed  and  published  the  fourth  in 
1739.  Vincent  de  la  Rue  died  in  l76'2.—Biog.  Uni^ 
verselle. 


RUFINUS.  253 


RUFINUS. 


RuFiNUS,  called  by  some  Toranius,  flourished  in  the 
fourth  century,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  native 
of  Aquileia.  He  wss  baptized  in  869,  and  retiring  to 
a  monastery  in  Aquileia,  devoted  himself  to  theological 
studies.  He  became  a  presbyter  of  the  Church,  and 
becoming  acquainted  with  St.  Jerome,  they  vowed  eternal 
friendship,  a  vow  they  were  not  destined  to  keep.  Par- 
taking of  the  Ascetic  fanaticism  of  the  time,  he  dedi- 
cated himself  in  371  to  the  monastic  life,  and  to  the 
study  of  the  Ascetic  discipline,  under  the  monks  of  the 
deserts  of  Egypt.  Visiting  Rome  on  his  way  thither, 
his  design  recommended  him  to  the  confidence  of 
Melania,  a  widow  of  a  noble  family  and  great  wealth, 
who  resolved  to  accompany  him  to  that  country,  and  to 
expend  her  riches  on  the  establishment  of  monastic  and 
charitable  institutions.  From  Egypt  he  was  compelled 
by  the  x\rians  to  flee  into  Palestine,  where,  with  Melania, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Jerusalem.  Here  he  built 
a  monastery  on  Mount  Olivet,  where  he  lived  for  many 
years. 

At  Jerusalem,  he  found  Jerome,  the  friend  of  his 
youth,  and  with  him  and  Bishop  John,  he  formed  a 
union  for  the  advancement  of  theological  science.  All 
these  at  that  time  shared  in  the  same  love  for  the  writ- 
ings of  Origen.  Jerome  had  indeed  sought  to  make 
several  of  his  works  more  widely  known  in  the  Western 
Church  by  means  of  translations,  and  had  in  his  prefaces 
spoken  of  him  with  the  greatest  admiration.  But  when, 
in  390,  the  controversy  concerning  the  opinions  of  Ori- 
gen w^as  started  between  Epiphanius  and  John  the 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  (see  the  lives  of  Epiphanius  and 
St.  Jerome)  Jerome  sided  with  the  opponents  of  Origen, 
while  Rufinus  maintained  vehemently  the  cause  of  the 
bishop  which  was  in  defence  of  Origen. 

VOL     VIII.  z 


254  RUFINUS. 

The  friends  were  now  separated,  both  being  persons 
of  excitable  temper,  until  the  year  396,  when  they  be- 
came reconciled  at  the  altar.  But  although  the  friendly 
relations  between  Jerome  and  Rufinus  seem  outwardly  to 
have  been  restored  again,  yet  the  communion  of  spirits 
which  had  once  been  disturbed,  certainly  could  not  be  so 
easily  renewed,  especially  in  the  case  of  so  irritable  and 
suspicious  a  person  as  Jerome.  It  needed  but  a  slight 
occasion  to  tear  open  again  the  slightly  healed  wound  ; 
and  this  was  given  by  Rufinus,  though  without  any 
intention  on  his  part,  yet  certainly  not  without  his  fault. 
In  the  year  397,  he  returned  from  his  travels  back  to 
the  West,  and  repaired  to  Rome.  There  he  w^as  in- 
duced, as  he  says,  by  the  wishes  of  his  friend  Macarius 
(who  being  engaged  in  writing  a  w^ork  against  the  astro- 
logical fate,  was  desirous  of  learning  the  views  of  Origen 
on  this  subject)  to  translate  Origen's  work  Hepi  dpxaiv 
into  Latin.  Now  this,  after  what  had  taken  place  before, 
was  manifestly  a  very  unwise  undertaking.  This  book, 
of  all  others,  was  directly  calculated  to  stir  up  anew  the 
narrow-minded  zealots  of  the  Roman  Church  against 
Origen ;  and  as  the  peculiar  ideas  of  this  work  were  so 
perfectly  alien  from  the  theological  spirit  of  the  Roman 
church,  no  good  whatever  would  result  from  making  it 
known  by  a  translation.  But  Rufinus  did  not  even 
furnish  the  means  for  studying  and  understanding  Ori- 
gen as  a  historical  phenomenon.  He  himself  was  too 
much  carried  away  with  wonder  at  the  great  man,  and 
too  much  fettered  by  the  dependence  of  his  own  mind 
on  the  dominant  scheme  of  the  Church,  to  be  able  rightly 
to  understand  Origen  in  his  theological  development. 
He  was  too  little  acquainted  wdth  the  relation  of  the 
hidden  depths  of  the  Christian  life  and  consciousness 
to  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  conception  of  them 
in  time,  to  be  able  to  form  any  correct  judgment  of  the 
relation  of  Origen's  theology  to  the  Church  scheme  of 
doctrine  in  his  own  age.     He  took  the  liberty  to  modify 


RUFINUS.  S55 

the  doctrines  of  Origen,  especially  in  those  passages 
which  had  reference  to  the  Trinity,  according  to  the 
decisions  of  the  Council  of  Nice.  But  he  frankly  con- 
fesses, also,  in  the  preface  to  his  translation,  that  in 
such  places  he  has  not  rendered  the  sense  of  Origen 
according  to  the  existing  readings.  Only  he  af&rms, 
that  he  had  introduced  no  foreign  matter,  but  had  sim- 
ply restored  the  original  reading,  which  had  been  cor- 
rupted by  heretics,  as  the  harmony  with  other  passages 
required.  But,  then,  as  he  did  not  consistently  carry 
through  even  this  method,  but  left  many  passages  unal- 
tered, which  sounded  no  less  heretical  to  these  times, 
so  he  exposed  himself  none  the  less  to  be  accused  by 
the  zealots  of  having  found  then  in  those  passages 
nothing  which  would  be  considered  as  heretical, — in 
spite  of  his  protestations,  that,  in  this  translation,  it  was 
not  his  design  to  exhibit  his  own  views,  but  the  original 
doctrines  of  Origen,  and  that  nothing  else  was  to  be 
learned  from  it  but  these.  At  the  same  time,  though 
perfectly  aware  of  Jerome's  excitable  temper,  and  of  the 
narrow  and  passionate  spirit  which  characterized  his 
principal  friends  at  Rome,  he  was  still  imprudent  enough 
to  refer  in  his  preface  to  the  praise  bestowed  on  Origen 
by  Jerome,  and  to  the  similar  plan  of  translating  his 
works  into  Latin,  which  the  latter  had  adopted. 

Scarcely  was  there  time  for  this  translation  and  pre- 
face to  become  known  in  Rome,  when  it  excited  among 
those  people  the  most  vehement  feelings  of  surprise  and 
displeasure.  Two  noble  Romans,  Pammachius  and  Oce- 
anus,  who  had  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Jerome 
ever  since  the  period  of  his  residence  in  Rome,  were 
extremely  concerned  for  the  reputation  of  his  orthodoxy, 
and  hastened  to  inform  him  of  the  scandal  given  to  the 
Christians  at  Rome  by  Rufinus.  They  called  upon  him, 
by  a  faithful  translation  of  that  work,  to  exhibit  Origen 
in  his  true  colours,  and  to  clear  himself  from  the  sus 
picion   of  entertaining  the   same   doctrines   of  Origen, 


256  RUFINUS. 

which  Rufinus  had  cast  upon  him.  Jerome  wrote  back 
in  a  tone  of  high-wrought  excitement  to  his  two  friends 
and  to  Rufinus.  Even  at  present,  however,  he  continued 
to  express  himself  with  the  same  moderation  concerning 
Origen ;  he  spoke  highly  of  his  great  gifts,  of  his  Chris- 
tian ardour,  of  his  merits  as  an  expounder  of  the  Scrip- 
tures : — and  he  pronounced  those  to  be  the  worst  enemies 
of  the  great  man,  who  had  taken  pains  to  publish  those 
writings  of  his  which  ought  to  have  remained  concealed. 
"  Let  us  not,"  said  he,  "  imitate  the  faults  of  the  man 
whose  excellencies  lie  beyond  our  reach."  But  the  rela- 
tions betwixt  Jerome  and  Rufinus  grew  continually  more 
hostile,  and  both  of  them  in  controversial,  or  more 
properly  speaking,  abusive  tracts,  full  of  passionate  lan- 
guage, forgot  their  dignity  both  as  theologians  and  as 
Christians ;  as  Augustine  had  the  frankness  to  tell 
Jerome,  when  he  called  upon  him  for  their  own  sakes, 
and  out  of  respect  to  the  weak,  for  whom  Christ  died, 
to  put  an  end  to  these  revilings.  The  influence  of 
Jerome's  powerful  patrons,  in  Rome,  however,  could  not 
hinder  Rufinus  from  being  justified  by  a  letter  addressed 
to  him  from  the  Roman  Bishop  Siricius.  The  more 
zealously,  therefore,  did  they  exert  themselves  to  excite 
a  more  unfriendly  feeling  towards  Rufinus  in  the  mind 
of  Anastasius,  who,  in  the  year  399,  succeeded  Siricius. 
But  it  was  chiefly  the  influence  of  Marcella,  a  widow, 
and  ancient  friend  of  Jerome,  which  contributed  to  in- 
spire in  the  mind  of  this  Roman  bishop  (who,  according 
to  his  own  confession,  had  until  now  heard  but  little 
or  nothing  about  Origen)  great  anxiety  and  solicitude 
with  regard  to  the  spread  of  the  Origenistic  heresies. 
Rufinus  was  summoned  before  his  tribunal.  He  excused 
himself,  it  is  true,  on  account  of  his  great  distance, 
and  for  other  reasons,  from  personally  making  his  ap- 
pearance at  Rome.  But  he  sent  in  a  letter  of  defence 
and  justification,  containing  a  full  and  explicit  confession 
of  his  faith,  appealing  to  the  fact  that  on  the  question 


RUFINUS.  257 

respecting  the  origin  of  the  soul  nothing  had  as  yet  been 
determined  by  the  Church ;  and  declaring  that  he,  as  a 
translator,  was  in  nowise  responsible  for  the  assertions 
of  the  writer  translated  by  him.  Anastasius,  in  the 
public  declarations  which  he  thereupon  made,  expressed 
himself  with  great  violence  against  Origen,  and  also 
unfavourably  towards  Rufinus. 

In  the  year  410,  the  ravages  of  the  Visigoths  in  Italy, 
under  Alaric,  compelled  him  to  take  refuge  in  Sicily, 
where  he  appears  to  have  died  the  same  or  the  succeed- 
ing year.  He  is  now  chiefly  known  as  an  ecclesiastical 
historian,  and  the  continuator  of  Eusebius.  Having 
made  a  Latin  version  of  the  work  of  Eusebius,  he  con- 
tinued the  history  of  the  Church  to  the  death  of  the 
elder  Theodosius  (392).  Both  his  translation  and  his 
original  work  are  still  extant.  The  former,  through 
which  Eusebius  was  for  many  ages  known  to  the  West, 
like  his  other  translations,  is  only  remarkable  for  the 
liberties  which  he  has  taken  with  the  original :  and  the 
latter  possesses  so  very  little  historical  value,  that  it  has 
been  completely  superseded  by  the  labours  of  succeeding 
writers.  But,  defective  as  it  w^as,  the  "  Ecclesiastical 
History"  of  Rufinus  no  sooner  appeared,  than  it  was 
translated  into  Greek. 

His  original  works,  besides  the  pieces  in  controversy 
with  Jerome,  already  noticed,  consist  of,  De  Benedicti- 
onibus  Judse  et  Reliquorum  XI.  Patriarch  arum,  Lib.  II.  ; 
Commentariorum  in  Hoseam  Lib.  III.  cum  Prefatione 
in  xii.  Minores  Prophetas ;  Comment  in  Prophetas  Joel 
et  Amos ;  Expositio  Symboli,  ad  Laurentium  Episco- 
pum ;  Historise  Ecclesiasticse  Lib.  II.,  added  by  him  to 
his  Latin  version  of  Eusebius,  and  continuing  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  to  the  death  of  the  emperor  Theodo- 
sius. He  is  by  some  thought  to  have  been  the  author, 
but  by  others  only  the  translator  from  some  lost  work 
of  the  Vitae  Patrum,  which  constitute  the  second  and 
third  Books  of  Rosweide's  collection.  His  Explanation 
z  3 


258  SA,  OR  SAA. 

of  the  Apostle's  Creed  is  of  great  importance,  inasmuch 
as  it  contains  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  All  his  works,  excepting  his 
Apologies  for  Origen,  and  declaration  to  Anastasius, 
were  published  at  Paris  by  Sonnius,  in  1580,  fol.  He 
translated  from  the  Greek  into  Latin,  The  Works  of 
Josephus;  Eusebius's  Ecclesiastical  History,  reduced 
into  nine  books ;  The  Ten  Books  of  the  Recognitions 
of  St.  Clement  of  Rome;  The  Epistle  to  James,  the 
Brother  of  our  Lord ;  and,  The  Book  of  Anatorius  con- 
cerning Easter. — Cave.    Dupin.    Neander.    Doivling. 


SA,    OR    SAA,    EMANUEL. 

Emanuel  Sa,  or  Saa,  was  born  at  Villa  de  Conde,  in 
Portugal,  in  the  year  1530,  and  at  fifteen  years  of  age 
became  a  Jesuit.  After  having  filled  the  philosophical 
chair  at  Gandia,  in  Valentia,  he  was  called  to  Rome  in 
1557,  and  appointed  interpreter  of  the  sacred  writings 
and  professor  of  divinity  in  the  seminary  belonging  to 
his  order.  Here  he  commenced  preacher,  and  for  many 
years  attracted  crowded  audiences  by  his  pulpit  oratory. 
By  Pope  Pius  V.  he  was  employed  in  superintending, 
conjointly  with  Peter  Parra,  another  Jesuit,  a  new  edi- 
tion of  the  Bible.  Afterwards  he  was  sent  to  regulate 
the  seminaries  at  Loretto,  Milan,  Genoa,  and  other 
principal  cities  in  Italy,  where  he  was  as  much  admired 
and  followed  as  a  preacher  as  he  had  been  at  Rome. 
By  his  exertions,  however,  his  health  became  so  much 
injured,  that  he  was  obliged  to  decline  all  public  engage- 
ments, and  to  retire  to  Arona  in  the  diocese  of  Milan, 
where  he  died  in  1596,  in  the  66th  year  of  his  age. 

He  was  the  author  of.  Scholia  in  Quatuor  Evangelia, 
1596,  4to,  consisting  of  short,  but  learned  and  ingenious 
notes  on  the  Four  Gospels,  partly  original  and  partly 
selected  from  the  labours  of  preceding   commentators; 


SABELLIUS.  259 

Notationes  in  totam  Sacram  Scripturam,  quibus  turn 
omnes  fere  Loci  difficiles,  turn  varise  ex  Hebraeo,  Chal- 
daeo,  et  Graeco,  Lectiones  explicantur;  these  were  pub- 
lished after  his  death,  in  1598  ;  and,  Aphorismi  Confes- 
sariorum  ex  Doctorum  Sententiis  collecti,  1595,  12mo. — 
Dupin.    Moreri. 


SABELLIUS. 

Sabellius,  an  heresiarch  of  the  third  century,  was  born 
at  Ptolemais,  and  was  a  disciple  of  Noetus.  He  resided 
either  as  bishop  or  as  a  presbyter  in  the  Pentapolis  of 
Cyrenaica.  It  was  in  the  Pentapolis,  about  the  year 
255,  that  he  began  to  excite  troubles  in  the  Church 
by  propounding  his  heresy.  In  the  formation  of  his 
system,  he  employed  the  apocryphal  (but  which  was 
considered  by  him  the  genuine)  gospel  of  the  Egyptians, 
in  which  Christ  reveals  to  His  disciples,  that  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  all  one  and  the  same. 
Sabellius,  like  his  predecessors,  proceeded  with  the  idea, 
that  the  distinction  of  persons  or  hypostases  in  God, 
would  lead  to  the  belief  of  a  plurality  of  Gods,  and  his 
disciples  were  wont  to  inquire  of  those  whom  they  wished 
to  win  over  to  their  party,  "  Have  we  one  God,  or  have 
we  three  Gods?"  His  doctrine  was  the  following.  In 
the  beginning,  God  was  the  hidden,  formless,  unrevealed 
Monas,  who  afterwards  manifested  Himself  in  a  Trinity. 
For  when  God,  revealing  Himself  externally  by  the  work 
of  creation,  came  from  His  hidden  primeval  state,  and 
entered  into  a  relation  with  the  world  as  its  ruler  and 
preserver,  He  was  named  the  Father:  when  to  effect 
the  redemption  of  mankind,  a  second  emanation  from 
the  Deity  (immediately  from  the  Father)  went  forth,  it 
united  itself  in  power  and  might  (a/cpyeta  fjLovrj,  o^^^  Se 
ova-ias  vTToa-Taa-ei)  to  the  man  Christ,  Who  had  been 
formed  by  the  Father  in  the  womb  of  the  virgin :  in  this 


urn  SACHEVERELL. 

union,  and  on  account  of  the  same,  He  was  called  the 
Son.  Lastly,  a  third  power  proceeded  from  God,  work- 
ing in  the  body  of  the  faithful,  the  Church,  enlightening, 
regenerating  them,  and  perfecting  their  redemption : 
this  power  was  named  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sabellius,  it 
will  therefore  be  seen,  admitted  a  distinction  between 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  not  a  dis- 
tinction of  persons,  nor  extending  to  eternity :  His  is  no 
other  than  a  distinction  of  three  names,  of  three  appel- 
lations of  one  and  the  same  God,  in  the  threefold  rela- 
tion of  Creator,  Redeemer,  and  Sanctifier.  The  Re- 
deemer is,  indeed,  different  from  the  Creator,  another 
appearance  {TrpoaoiTrov) ;  not  another  hypostasis  or  person, 
only  another  power,  another  representation,  another  ema- 
nation from  the  Godhead,  which,  however,  does  not 
continue  in  its  individuality,  but,  like  the  emanation 
named  the  Holy  Ghost,  returns,  after  the  completion  of 
its  office,  to  the  Father,  from  Whom  it  had  proceeded,  as 
a  ray  shot  forth  from  the  sun  may  be  attracted  back,  and 
again  received  into  it.  It  is  only  an  expansion,  occur- 
ring in  time,  and  transitory,  of  the  Father  in  the  Son 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sabellius  compared  his  Trinity 
to  the  union  of  the  body,  of  the  soul  and  of  the  mind  in 
one  person;  to  the  sun,  in  which,  in  one  substance, 
there  are  three  distinct  properties — the  power  of  heat- 
ing, the  power  of  enlightening,  and  its  circumference ; 
and,  lastly,  to  the  distinction  of  graces  which  flow  from 
one  spirit.  This  Trinity  is,  therefore,  not  immanent, 
as  is  the  Trinity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  emanent, 
consisting  only  of  external  relations  of  God  with  the 
world  and  with  the  Church.  Sabellius  fell  into  error 
by  confounding  the  interior  with  the  exterior, — the  eter- 
nal wuth  the  temporal  manifestation  of  God. — Cave. 
Dollinger. 

SACHEVERELL,    HENEY. 

Henet  Sacheverell.      The  history   of  Sacheverell  be- 


SACHEVERELL.  261 

longs  rather  to  civil  than  to  ecclesiastical  history,  and 
our  notice  of  him,  therefore,  need  be  but  short.  He  was 
born  about  1673,  was  the  son  of  a  poor  clergyman  at 
Marlborough,  and  was  educated  by  the  kindness  of  his 
godfather,  and  placed  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  of^ 
which  he  became  fellow.  His  regularity  and  polite 
manners  rendered  him  a  favourite  tutor  in  the  college, 
and  his  Latin  poems,  some  of  which  appeared  in  the 
Musse  Anglicanas,  proved  him  an  elegant  scholar  and  a 
man  of  respectable  talents.  He  was,  at  Oxford,  chamber- 
fellow  with  Addison,  w^ho  inscribed  his  Farewell  to  the 
Muses  to  him,  as  his  friend  and  colleague.  He  took 
his  degree  of  M.A.  in  1696,  and  that  of  D.D.  in  1708. 
His  first  preferment  was  the  living  of  Cannock,  in 
Staffordshire,  to  which,  in  1705,  was  added  the  preach* 
ership  of  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark. 

In  a  sermon,  preached  at  St.  Paul's  on  the  fifth  of 
November,  17  09,  he  inveighed  against  the  ministry,  the 
Dissenters,  and  the  Low  Church ;  against  toleration,  the 
revolution,  and  the  union;  while  he  asserted  the  doc- 
trines of  non-resistance,  and  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
This  sermon,  entitled,  "  The  Perils  of  false  Brethren," 
being  printed,  although  a  worthless  composition,  and 
allowed,  even  by  the  Tories,  to  be  a  rhapsody  of  raving 
and  nonsense,  gave  offence  to  the  ministry,  who  com- 
plained of  it  to  the  Commons  ;  in  consequence  of  which, 
the  prisoner  was  taken  into  custody  and  impeached. 
After  a  solemn  trial,  which  lasted  three  weeks,  Atter- 
bury,  Smallridge,  and  Friend,  assisting  in  the  defence, 
he  was  declared  guilty,  and  suspended  for  three  years. 
His  sermon  was  burnt  before  the  Lord  Mayor,  in  whose 
presence  it  had  been  delivered  ;  and  another  book  of  the 
author's,  with  a  decree  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  on 
the  indefeasible  right  of  kings,  were  consigned  to  the 
same  bonfire. 

This  sentence  of  the  Peers,  designed  as  a  punishment, 
was  converted  by  the  heat  of  party  into  a  triumph.     On 


^Cr2  SADEEL. 

proceding  to  North  Wales,  the  preacher  was  everywhere, 
but  particularly  in  Oxford,  greeted  with  the  honours  due 
to  a  conqueror.  In  some  places  troops  of  horse  lined 
the  road,  and  the  corporations  went  forth  to  meet  him  ; 
.in  others,  the  hedges  were  festooned  with  garlands,  the 
steeples  decorated  with  standards,  flags,  and  colours, 
and  every  man  was  marked  out  for  vengeance  and  aggres- 
sion, who  refused  to  raise  the  cry  of  "  The  Church  and 
Sacheverell."  At  the  expiration  of  his  suspension,  in 
3  713,  these  popular  congratulations  were  renewed;  he 
was  requested  to  preach  before  the  Commons,  and  the 
Queen  presented  him  to  the  living  of  St.  Andrew's, 
Holborn. 

On  his  return  to  St.  Saviour's,  he  preached  in  the 
Christian  Temple,  on  the  duty  of  praying  for  our  ene- 
mies, and  published  his  discourse.  He  now  again  ap- 
peared as  an  author.  He  was  a  political  tool,  and  not  a 
divine,  and  was  one  of  those  who  set  the  example  which 
was  followed  for  nearly  a  century  afterwards  of  correcting 
the  Church  of  England,  which  belongs  of  right  to  all 
parties  in  the  state,  with  one  particular  faction.  Hence 
the  Church,  ill  supported  by  that  faction,  has  been  an 
object  of  hatred  to  all  other  factions,  and  especially  to 
the  Whigs,  whose  hatred  to  the  Church  of  England  is 
an  hereditary  prejudice.  Sacheverell  died  on  the  5th  of 
June,  1716. — HowelVs  State  Trials.     Grant. 


SADEEL,    ANTHONY. 

Anthony  Sadeel  was  born  at  the  Castle  of  Chabot,  in 
the  Maconais,  in  1534.  He  was  educated  at  Paris  in 
Calvinistic  principles.  He  studied  also  at  Toulouse 
and  Geneva,  and  became  acquainted  with  Calvin  and 
Beza.  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  was  appointed  as 
preacher  at  Paris.  Here,  he  and  his  congregation  were 
subjected  to  various  persecutions  and  misrepresentations, 


SADEEL.  263 

and  he  first  appeared  as  an  author  in  defence  of  these 
proceedings.  In  1558,  he  was  cast  into  prison,  from 
which  he  was  released  by  the  intervention  of  the  King 
of  Navarre. 

He  now  removed  to  Orleans;  and  when  the  danger 
seemed  to  be  over  he  returned,  and  drew  up  a  Confession 
of  Faith,  first  proposed  in  a  synod  of  the  reformed  clergy 
of  France,  held  at  Paris,  which  was  presented  to  the 
king  by  the  famous  admiral  Coligni.  The  king  dying 
soon  after,  and  the  queen  and  the  family  of  Guise  renew- 
ing with  more  fury  than  ever  the  persecution  of  the 
reformed,  Sadeel  was  obliged  again  to  leave  the  metro- 
polis. In  156-2,  he  presided  at  a  national  synod  at 
Orleans;  and  he  then  went  to  Berne,  and  finally  to 
Geneva,  where  he  was  associated  with  the  ministers  of 
that  place.  Henry  IV.  gave  him  an  invitation  to  his 
court,  which  he  accepted,  and  was  chaplain  at  the  battle 
of  Courtray,  and  had  the  charge  of  a  mission  to  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany ;  but  unable  at  length  to 
bear  the  fatigues  of  a  military  life,  which  he  was  obliged 
to  pass  with  his  royal  benefactor,  he  retired  to  Geneva  in 
1589,  and  resumed  his  functions  as  a  preacher,  and 
undertook  the  professorship  of  Hebrew.  He  died  in 
1591.  Hie  works  are  entitled,  Antonii  Sadeelis  Clian- 
dsei  Nobilissimi  Viri  Opera  Theologica,  Geneva,  1592, 
fol.;  reprinted  1593,  4to ;  and  1599  and  1615,  fol. 
They  consist,  among  others,  of  the  following  treatises, 
De  Verbo  Dei  Scripto ;  De  Vera  Peccatorum  Remissione  ; 
De  Unico  Christi  Sacerdotio  et  Sacrificio ;  De  Spirituali 
et  Sacramental!  Manducatione  Corporis  Christi ;  Posna- 
niensium  Assertionum  Refutatio  ;  Refutatio  Libelli  Clau- 
dii  de  Sainctes,  intitulati,  Examen  Doctrinae  de  Coena 
Domini ;  Histoire  des  Persecutions  et  des  Martyrs  de 
I'Eglise  de  Paris,  depuis  I'an  1557,  jusqu'au  Regno  de 
Charles  IX.;  this  was  printed  at  Lyons,  in  1563,  8vo, 
under  the  name  of  Zamariel ;  and,  Metamorphose  de 
Ronsard  en  Pretre,  in  verse. — Melchior  Adam.    Chalmers. 


264  SAGE. 


SAGE,    JOHN. 


In  the  life  of  this  amiable  and  learned  prelate,  we  shall 
be  enabled  from  his  Life  published  by  Bishop  Gillan, 
but  more  particularly  from  that  prefixed  to  his  works, 
published  by  the  Spottiswoode  Society,  to  present  our 
readers  with  a  view  of  the  Church  in  Scotland  in  its 
transition  state  as  it  passed  from  an  establishment 
into  its  present  freedom  from  state  control.  Sage  w^as 
born  at  Creich,  in  Fifeshire,  in  1652,  being  the  son  of 
Captain  Sage,  and  was  educated  at  St.  Andrew's.  He 
became  M.A.  in  1669,  and  became  parish  schoolmaster, 
at  Ballingray,  in  Fife,  and  afterwards  at  Tippermuir,  in 
Perthshire.  He  was  afterwards  tutor  to  the  children  of 
Mr.  Drummond  of  Cultmalundie,  and  accompanied  his 
sons  to  the  University  of  St.  Andrews's.  He  was  not 
ordained  till  1686,  when  he  officiated  as  a  presbyter 
in  the  city  of  Glasgow  till  the  Revolution.  What  cure 
he  held  is  not  known,  but  he  was  diocesan  or  Synod- 
clerk.  He  had  been  noticed  kindly  by  Dr.  Rose,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  and  was  ordained  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  the  uncle  of  Dr.  Rose.  He 
discharged  his  duties  so  well,  that  while  his  conduct 
gained  for  him  the  esteem  of  members  of  the  Church, 
it  procured  for  him  also  the  good-will  and  respect  of 
those  without  her  pale.  There  was  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  this  in  the  treatment  which  he  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  Hill  men,  v*^ho  persecuted  and  insulted 
the  clergy  just  before  the  Revolution  broke  out. 

These  disorderly  fanatics,  who  were  generally  of  the 
lower  orders,  were  unswerving  adherents  to  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  violently  opposed  to  the  ''usurp- 
ing'' goverment  of  the  Stuarts,  and  animated  by  a  deadl}' 
hatred  to  every  thing  in  any  way  connected  with  bishops 
and  their  authority.  Such  being  the  main  features  in 
the  character  of  these  zealots,  they  only  wanted  a  good 


SAGE.  265 

opportunity  for  shewing  their  antipathy  to  the  Church, 
and  inflicting  injury  and  insult  upon  her  ministers.  In 
the  palmy  days  of  the  Covenant,  after  the  famous  1638 — 
those  days  when  Henderson,  and  Loudon,  and  Johnston 
of  Warriston,  were  in  the  zenith  of  their  popularity  and 
powers — they  enjoyed  such  an  opportunity,  and  they  did 
not  fail  to  improve  it.  The  day  of  their  triumph  happily 
soon  came  to  an  end — Scotland  was  subdued  by  Crom- 
well, and  even  Scottish  Presbyterianism  had  to  bow 
down  beneath  the  galling  yoke  of  English  Dissent. 
"  Greek  had  met  Greek "  in  this  case,  and  the  result 
was,  that  Cromwell  ruled  Scotland  with  a  rod  of  iron, 
and  the  Covenanters,  in  lamenting  their  own  misfor- 
tunes, were  drawn  off  from  persecuting  the  unfortunate 
Prelatists.  At  the  Restoration,  the  government  of 
Charles  II.,  for  its  own  security,  kept  a  watchful  eye 
upon  the  movements  of  the  Covenanters,  and  restrained 
their  irregularities  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law.  At 
the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  the  ill-fated  James, 
the  lawlessness  of  these  disaffected  persons  was  effec- 
tually kept  in  check  ;  but  upon  the  news  of  the  landing 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  England,  the  king  was 
obliged  to  order  all  his  standing  forces  in  Scotland  to 
repair  to  the  royal  standard  in  the  South.  This,  while  it 
weakened  the  Scottish  government,  left  the  country  in 
a  defenceless  state,  and  furnished  a  splendid  occasion 
to  the  discontented  and  fanatical  for  creating  distur- 
bances, and  punishing  those  whom  they  chose  to  con- 
sider Malignants.  The  Hillmen,  or  Cameronians,  seized 
the  precious  moment,  and  began  a  shocking  system  of 
persecution  and  cruelty  against  the  incumbents  of  the 
different  parishes,  by  which  about  two  hundred  ministers 
and  their  families  were  driven  from  their  houses  in  the 
winter  season,  and  cast  upon  the  precarious  benevolence 
of  their  neighbours.  Their  method  of  procedure  has 
been  thus  narrated  by  a  contemporary,  and  a  sufferer  from 
their  violence  : — "  They  assembled    themselves   in    the 

VOL.  VIII,  A   A 


266  SAGE. 

night  time,  and  sometimes  in  the  day,  in  small  bodies, 
armed ;  and  in  a  hostile  way  went  through  the  countries, 
forcing  their  entry  into  private  men's  houses,  against 
whom  they  had  any  private  quarrel,  but  most  ordinarily 
into  ministers'  houses,  where  they  with  tongue  and  hands 
committed  all  outrages  imaginable  against  the  ministers, 
their  wives  and  children ;  where,  having  ate  and  drank 
plentifully,  at  parting  they  used  to  carry  the  minister 
out  of  his  house  to  the  churchyard,  or  some  public  place 
of  the  town  or  village,  and  there  expose  him  to  the  peo- 
ple as  a  condemned  malefactor — gave  him  strict  charge 
never  to  preach  any  more  in  that  place,  but  to  remove 
himself  and  his  family  out  of  it  immediately ;  and  for 
the  conclusion  of  all  this  tragedy,  they  caused  his  gown 
to  be  torn  over  his  head  in  a  hundred  pieces — of  some 
they  spared  not  their  very  clothes  to  their  skirts.  When 
they  had  done  with  the  minister,  they  called  for  the  keys 
of  the  church,  locked  the  door  and  carried  the  keys  with 
them  ;  and  last  of  all  they  threw  the  minister's  furniture 
out  of  his  house  in  many  places,  as  the  last  act  of  this 
barbarous  scene.  This  was  the  most  general  method 
when  the  minister  was  found  at  home,  but  in  case  he 
was  absent,  they  entered  his  house,  made  intimation 
of  their  will  and  pleasure  to  his  wife  and  servants,  bid- 
ding them  tell  him  to  remove  from  that  place.  If 
they  found  not  a  ready  obedience,  they  would  return 
and  make  him  an  example  to  others." 

Such  was  the  real  character  of  the  system  of  "  rabbling," 
which  the  clergy  had  to  endure  about  the  period  of  the 
Revolution.  It  seems,  however,  that  the  disorderly  mob 
treated  Mr.  Sage  with  more  mercy  than  they  displayed 
generally  to  the  rest  of  his  brethren  in  the  Diocese  of 
Glasgow ;  for,  as  his  venerable  biographer  quaintly 
informs  us — *'  the  saints  contented  themselves  by  giving 
him  a  ivarning  to  depart  from  Glasgow,  and  threatenings 
if  he  should  ever  adventure  to  return  thither  again." 
This  forbearance  on  their   part   was   singular  enough, 


SAGE.  267 

when'  it  is  considered  that  Mr.  Sage  was  a  strenuous 
opponent  and  an  avowed  disapprover  of  their  principles 
and  conduct.  As  a  minister  of  the  everlasting  Gospel, 
which  contains  rules  of  faith  and  practice,  he  felt  himself 
imperatively  called  upon  both  by  argument  and  pathetic 
exhortation,  to  enforce  the  duty  of  loyalty  and  obedience 
to  the  "  powers  that  be,"  which  he  saw  was  much  depre- 
ciated by  his  countrymen.  .  Being  firmly  persuaded  in 
his  own  mind  of  the  truth  of  the  Apostolical  Succession, 
and  convinced  of  the  invalidity  of  Orders  which  do  not 
emanate  from  duly  consecrated  bishops,  he  was  careful 
in  his  sermons  to  set  forth  the  necessity  of  communi- 
cating with  the  Episcopal  Church.  Having  marked  in 
the  sacred  Scriptures  that  striking  feature  of  external 
unity  by  which  the  Church  of  the  blessed  Kedeemer  is 
traced  by  the  pens  of  the  inspired  writers,  and  the 
warnings  which  are  thickly  strewn  upon  the  pages  of  the 
New  Testament  against  "  divisions,"  and  instability  in 
matters  of  religion,  he  was  wont  loudly  to  censure  the 
prevalent  disposition  for  "  change,"  and  to  insist  that 
separation  from  the  Church  of  Scotland — receiving  the 
Sacraments  from  other  hands  than  those  of  her  bishops, 
and  inferior  clergy — and  frequenting  places  of  worship, 
offered  to  God  by  unauthorised  men,  were  acts,  which 
constituted  the  sin  of  schism,  and  involved  those  who 
practised  them  in  the  serious  consequences  which  the 
Word  of  God  denounces  against  it.  In  these  his  dis- 
courses, he  had.  respect  to  two  opposite  parties  by  which 
the  Church  was  at  that  time  attacked — 1st,  To  the 
disciples  of  the  Covenant,  who,  besides  setting  at  nought 
the  command  to  "  give  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's,"  i.e.  to  obey  the  existing  laws,  and  reverence 
the  persons  of  those  in  whom  authority  was  invested, 
carried  their  notions  of  "  Gosjwl  liberty'  so  far  as  to  reject 
every  sort  of  restraint  upon  their  religious  opinions,  and 
to  regard  themselves  as  the  only  true  interpreters  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Bible,  and  the  late  discoverers  of  the 


ues  SAGE. 

Scriptural  model  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  What  the 
pious  and  amiable  Leighton  used  to  say  to  them  was 
strictly  characteristic — "  That  they  made  themselves  the 
standards  of  opinions  and  practices,  and  never  looked 
either  abroad  into  the  world,  to  see  what  others  were 
doing,  nor  yet  back  into  the  former  times,  to  observe 
what  might  be  warranted  or  recommended  by  antiquity." 
2nd,^ — To  the  members  of  the  Romish  schism,  who, 
though  loyal  so  far  as  civil  politics  were  concerned,  were 
the  open  enemies  of  the  Church  in  Scotland.  Believing 
that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is,  jure  divino,  the  Supreme 
Prelate  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  that  all  spiritual 
authority  must  flow  through  him,  they  regarded  the 
Scotican  Church,  which  rejected  the  Pope's  authority 
in  Scotland,  as  schismatical,  and  zealously  strove  to 
effect  her  overthrow  both  by  secret  stratagem  and  open 
opposition. 

To  both  these  classes  of  men,  the  discourses  of  Mr.' 
Sage  were  directed,  and  he  wielded  against  them  "the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God," — the 
Word  of  God,  not  as  interpreted  by  Scottish  Covenan- 
ting Presbyterians,  nor  by  those  who  own  the  sway  of 
an  Italian  Bishop,  but  by  the  Catholic  Church,  making 
herself  heard  in  general  Councils,  the  decrees  of  which 
were  afterwards  universally  received  by  Christians  both 
in  the  East  and  West — both  in  the  Latin  and  Greek 
Churches.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  discourses  of  such 
a  nature  were  by  no  means  palatable,  and  that  a  clergy- 
man, who  in  the  "  west"  of  Scotland  was  so  bold  as  to 
preach  them,  stood  a  very  fair  chance  of  raising  up  a 
host  of  enemies  against  himself.  There  is,  however,  an 
intimate  charm  in  consistency  and  earnestness,  which 
cannot  fail  to  make  an  impression  on  all  who  are  not 
totally  blinded  by  prejudice,  and  cause  them,  even  though 
they  do  not  coincide  with  a  man's  opinions,  to  have  re- 
spect to  his  character.  This  was  the  case  with  Mr.  Sage, 
at  this  memorable  crisis  of  our  national  ecclesiastical 


SAGE.  269 

history.  An  uncompromising  Catholic  himself,  he  en- 
deavoured to  persuade  his  schismatical  countrymen  to 
come  within  the  pale  of  the  Church,  because  he  firmly 
believed  her  to  be  the  only  lawful  dispenser  of  the  Word 
and  Sacraments.  But  his  exhortations  breathed  the 
spirit  of  Christian  charity,  and  evinced  his  affectionate 
earnestness  for  the  souls  of  the  people.  Thus  the  malice 
of  the  enemies  of  the  Church  was  disarmed,  and  they 
were  compelled  to  esteem  the  bold  asserter  of  the  Apos- 
tolical claims.  "  To  this,"  says  Gillan,  "  it  may  in 
gome  measure  be  imputed  that  he  escaped  those  out- 
rageous insults  and  cruelties  which  the  rabblers  (after 
the  example  of  their  schismatical  forefathers — the  Cir- 
cumcilliones  in  Africk)  acted  against  others  of  his  bre- 
thren, especially  those  who  had  trimmed." 

Before  the  Revolution  had  occurred  it  was  intended 
to  place  him  in  the  divinity  chair  at  St.  Andrew's,  but 
in  the  turmoil  of  the  times  the  appointment  was  not 
effected.  It  has  been  already  stated,  that  by  the  with- 
drawal of  troops  from  Scotland  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution,  the  Cameronians,  or  Hillmen,  were  enabled 
to  exercise  unheard  of  cruelties  and  insults  towards  the 
members  of  the  then  Scottish  Establishment,  and  that 
by  their  illegal  proceedings  and  fanatical  violence,  about 
two  hundred  incumbents  were  ejected  from  their  parishes. 
We  must  now  inquire  in  what  light  the  new  government 
viewed  the  conduct  of  those  zealots,  and  whether  they 
took  any  steps  for  restoring  the  unfortunate  clergy  to 
their  benefices,  of  which  they  had  been  unjustly  deprived. 
The  sufferings  of  the  clergy  were  so  severe,  that  various 
accounts  were  sent  up  to  London  concerning  them,  in 
order  to  induce  the  authorities  there  to  interfere  in  their 
behalf.  The  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  and  many  of  the 
Scottish  Episcopal  Nobility,  who  were  then  in  London, 
applied  to  their  friends  in  high  stations  about  the  court, 
in  the  hope  of  persuading  them  to  use  their  influence 
for  the  afflited  clergy.  But  these  representations  ^nd 
A  a3 


S70  SAGE. 

private  appeals  were  all  in  vain.  At  last  the  clergy 
resolved  to  send  up  a  public  petition,  properly  attested, 
to  the  prince,  and  to  depute  one  of  their  number  to  go 
to  court  and  present  it.  Dr.  Scott,  Dean  of  Glasgow, 
was  the  person  selected  for  this  purpose.  Having 
arrived  in  London,  he  laid  the  petition  before  the  Prince, 
who  saw  at  once  the  reasonableness  of  its  prayer,  and 
issued  a  proclamation  on  the  6th  FebiTiary  1689,  order- 
ing the  peace  to  be  kept,  and  forbidding  any  one  from 
being  persecuted  or  disturbed  in  the  exercise  of  his 
religion,  whatever  that  might  be.  But  this  proclama- 
tion was  disregarded  by  the  rabblers,  and  a  serious  riot 
occurred  in  the  Cathedral  of  Glasgow  on  the  very  next 
Sunday  after  it  was  issued.  Another  representation 
therefore  was  made  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  through 
Dr.  Fall,  the  Principal  of  Glasgow  College,  who  was 
then  in  London ;  but  the  only  satisfaction,  which  he 
obtained,  was  an  assurance  that  the  case  of  the  perse- 
cuted clergy  should  be  referred  to  the  Meeting  of  Estates, 
which  was  to  be  held  on  the  14th  of  March. 

The  helpless  ministers  and  their  friends  looked  for- 
ward with  much  anxiety  to  the  approaching  day.  The 
Estates  were  convened,  and  the  first  business  of  impor- 
tance which  they  transacted  was  hearing  a  letter  from 
William  read,  recommending  them  "  to  enter  with  all 
speed  upon  such  consultations  with  regard  to  the  public 
good,  and  to  the  general  interests  and  inclinations  of 
the  people  as  may  settle  them  on  sure  and  lasting 
foundations  of  peace."  The  macer  entered  the  conven- 
tion, bearing  a  letter  from  the  king,  dated  on  board  the 
St.  Michael,  1st  March,  1689,  enjoining  them  to  loyalty, 
and  threatening  them  with  punishment  if  they  were 
disobedient.  This  epistle,  however,  was  *'  thrown  aside 
with  cool  indifference,"  and  they  passed  a  vote  decla- 
ratory of  their  determination  "  to  continue  undissolved 
until  they  settle  and  secure  the  Protestant  religion,  the 
government,   Imvs,   and   liberties  of  the  kingdom.'"      This 


SAGE.  271 

declaration  raised  the  hopes  of  the  ejected  ministers, 
who  were  not  conscious  of  having  any  tendency  to 
Popery,  and  who  had  rights  and  liberties  sanctioned  by 
law,  which  required  the  protection  of  their  legislators. 
But,  alas !  the  bright  prospects  which  had  cheered  them, 
became  speedily  overcast  with  a  gloomy  and  portentous 
cloud.  It  soon  became  evident  that  theirs  were  not  the 
"  rights  and  liberties  "  which  were  to  be  protected.  For 
numbers  of  the  West  Country  mob  came  flocking  into 
Edinburgh,  and  took  their  station  about  the  place  of 
meeting,  where  they  insulted  the  Episcopal  nobility  and 
gentry,  and  especially  the  bishops,  who  claimed  a  seat 
in  the  Convention.  The  lives  of  the  members  were 
endangered  by  their  tumultuous  and  violent  proceedings, 
and  accordingly  the  most  obnoxious  were  obliged  to  retire 
from  the  meeting,  and  many  of  them,  Lord  Dundee 
among  others,  to  leave  the  city,  in  order  to  escape  the 
plots  formed  for  their  destruction.  Having  by  this 
method  of  intimidation  cleared  the  house  of  all  "  sus- 
pected "  persons,  and  having  obtained  a  body  of  stand- 
ing troops  under  General  Mackay,  the  Convention  passed 
a  vote  of  thanks  to  those  very  persons  who  had  rabbled 
the  ministers,  and  complimented  them  as  being  "  well 
affected  to  the  Protestant  interest."  This  was  extremely 
disheartening  to  the  ejected  clergy,  and  greatly  dimin- 
ished their  chance  of  redress.  But  the  death-blow  to 
their  hopes  was  yet  to  be  fnflicted.  On  the  4th  of  April 
the  Meeting  of  Estates  passed  a  vote  that  King  James 
had  "  forfaulted  "  his  right  to  the  Crown,  and  declared 
the  throne  vacant.  On  the  11  th  they  brought  in  their 
Claim  of  Right,  in  which  the  "  Article"  controverted  by 
Bishop  Sage  in  the  Fundamental  Charter  occurs,  and 
proclaimed  William  and  Mary  King  and  Queen  of  Scot- 
land. As  yet  nothing  was  directly  done  either  for  or 
against  the  clergy,  and  the  Hillmen  were  amusing  them- 
selves, as  usual,  in  rabbling  them  from  their  livings ; 
but  the  minister  of  Ratho,  near  Edinburgh,  having  had 


?272  SAGE. 

a  visit  from  these  rioters,  his  case,  which  was  specially 
referred,  brought  the  subject  of  their  sufferings  before 
the  Convention.  And  now  came  the  fatal  thrust.  On 
the  13th  it  was  resolved,  that  King  James  should  be 
disowned — that  all  ministers  of  the  Gospel  should  pray 
by  name  for  William  and  Mary,  as  the  de  jure  sove- 
reigns of  the  realm — and  that  the  proclamation  to  this 
effect  should  be  read  by  all  ministers  in  Edinburgh  after 
sermon  next  morning  to  their  people,  and  by  others  on 
such  days  as  appointed,  threatening  them  with  depriva- 
tion of  their  benefices  if  they  refused  to  comply,  and 
promising  protection  to  all  "  then  in  possession  and 
exercise  of  their  ministry"  who  should  obey  it.  It  was 
proposed  as  an  amendment  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
the  president,  that  those  who  had  been  forcibly  extruded 
from  their  parishes  should  be  included  in  this  conditional 
protection  of  the  government ;  but  this  motion  was  over- 
ruled, upon  the  ground  that,  if  carried,  it  would  '•  dis- 
oblige the  Presbyterians,"  and  might  have  very  fatal 
(political)  consequences."  Accordingly,  the  **  rabbled" 
ministers  and  their  starving  families  were  omitted. 

The  Convention  of  Estates,  to  which  they  had  been 
taught  to  look  for  redress,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  cry, 
and  by  drawing  away  the  shelter  of  the  law,  gave  fresk 
encouragement  to  the  mob  to  persevere  in  their  lawless 
course  against  them.  While  this  was  the  case  with 
them,  matters  were  not  much  better  with  their  brethren, 
who  still  held  their  livings.  The  suddenness  of  the 
proclamation,  and  the  importance  of  the  duty  required 
of  them,  took  the  Edinburgh  clergy  quite  by  surprize, 
and  threw  them  into  a  state  of  perplexing  doubt.  They 
did  not  receive  the  astounding  command  till  late 
on  the  Saturday  evening,  and  they  were  ordered  next 
morning  to  dethrone  a  sovereign,  and  transfer  their 
allegiance  to,  and  invoke  the  Divine  blessing  upon, 
another.  As  was  to  have  been  expected,  many  of  them 
shrank  from  this  difficult  point  of  obedience,  and  begged 


SAGE.  273 

for  time  to  consider.     But  those  who  did  not  comply 

with  the  edict  were  called  before  the  Council  on  the 

following  day,   and   forthwith  deprived,    although   they 

offered  many  substantial  pleas   in  justification  of  their 

conduct,  in  addition  to  that  of  the  shortness  of  time 

afforded  them  for  consideration — as  for  instance  that  the 

order  to  make   public  prayers  for  the   new   king   and 

queen  did  not  come  to  them  through  their  ordinaries, 

whom   alone,    as  conscientious  ecclesiastics,    they   were 

bound  to  obey — that  William  and  Mary  had  not  accepted 

the  crown — and  other  equally  good  reasons.     All  these 

arguments,  however,    were    of  no    avail.       By   a   hasty 

severity,  unparalleled  in  Scottish  history,  the  clergy  in 

all  the  surrounding  neighbourhood,  who  refused  to  obey 

the  proclamation  of  the  13th  of  April,  were  ejected  from 

their  benefices,  and  the  rabble  in  the  meanwhile  were 

anticipating  the  sharpness  of  the  law.     This  posture  of 

affairs  continued   until  the    Convention   was    converted 

into  a  parliament,  which  met  under    the  authority  of 

William  and  Mary,   June   5th,   1689.     Henceforth  the 

"work"  went  more  rapidly  on.       On  the  19th  of  July, 

the  doom  of  the  Church  as  an  establishment  was  sealed, 

by  the  passing  of  an  act    "abolishing  prelacie."     The 

Parliament  adjourned  on  the   2nd  of  August ;  and   on 

the  22nd   of  the  same  month   an   edict  was    set   forth 

by  the  privy  council,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Earl  of 

Crawford,  "  allowing  and  inviting  parishioners  and  other 

hearers  to  inform  against  ministers  who  had  not  read 

the  proclamation  of  the  Estates,   and  prayed   for  King 

William  and  Queen  Mary." 

Such  a  general  invitation,  proceeding  from  such  an 
authority,  had  a  very  ready  obedience  given  to  it  by  an 
inflamed  populace ;  and  as  few  men  are  without  their 
secret  enemies,  it  afforded  an  ample' opportunity  for  the 
gratification  of  private  revenge.  The  result  of  it  was, 
that  in  the  course  of  a  short  time  almost  all  the  parochial 
clergy  in  the  Merse,  Lothians,  Fife,  Stirlingshire',  Perth- 


274  SAGE. 

shire,  besides  some  in  Aberdeen,  Moray,  and  Ross,  were 
expelled.  But  the  most  iniquitous  of  all  the  irregular 
proceedings  which  occurred  at  this  time,  was  an  inhibitory 
act  of  the  privy  council,  passed  29th  December,  by  which 
the  civil  courts  were  enjoined  not  to  take  up  the  cases 
of  the  rabbled  clergy,  who  should  appeal  to  them  for 
the  recovery  of  their  stipends,  which  had  not  been  paid 
before  their  expulsion.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
they  had  actually  done  the  amount  of  labour,  for  which 
they  were  justly  entitled  to  remuneration,  and  the  law, 
if  it  had  been  permitted  to  have  free  course,  would 
undoubtedly  have  decided  in  their  favour;  but  the  act 
of  council  precluded  this,  and  shut  their  last  remaining 
door  of  relief.  Such  were  some  of  the  main  features  of 
the  proceedings  which  took  place  at  this  time. 

Sage  appears  to  have  taken  up  his  residence  in  Edin- 
burgh after  his  having  been  "  rabbled  "  out  of  Glasgow. 
Here  he  eagerly  embraced  every  opportunity  which  pre- 
sented itself  of  applying  the  culture  of  true  religion  to 
the  souls  of  his  countrymen,  and  of  supporting  the 
cause  of  the  Church.  While  any  of  the  parochial  in- 
cumbents in  the  Scottish  metropolis  retained  possession 
of  their  churches,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  assisting  them 
in  the  performance  of  Divine  service,  and  of  occasionally 
relieving  them  from  the  burden  of  a  sermon ;  and  after- 
wards, when  the  "  inquisitorial  tribunal  "  of  the  Kirk, 
acting  upon  the  authority  delegated  to  them  by  the 
parliament  of  1690,  had  "purged  out  all  insufficient, 
negligent,  scandalous,  and  erroneous  ministers,'"  i.  e.  had 
by  a  system  of  continual  vexation  and  insult,  deprived 
all  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  the  city,  both  compilers  and 
noncompilers,  of  their  livings,  Mr.  Sage  was  appointed 
to  the  pastoral  care  of  one  of  the  principal  "  meeting- 
houses "  in  Edinburgh.  The  members  of  the  Church, 
when  they  saw  the  clergy  expelled  from  their  parish 
churches,  very  properly  fitted  up  places  of  worship  or 
chapels  in  different  parts  of  the  city,    in   which   they 


SAGE.  275 

might  enjoy  the  benefit  of  authorized  preaching,  and 
have  the  Sacraments  "rightly  and  duly  administered." 

But  he  was  not  permitted  long  to  pursue  the  even 
tenor  of  his  way,  in  fulfilling  his  pastoral  duties  to  the 
honour  of  God  and  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-Christians. 
The  relentless  jealousy  of  the  Presbyterians,  not  content 
with  driving  the  ministers  from  the  parish  churches, 
pursued  them  even  into  the  privacy  of  the  "  meeting- 
houses ;"  and  with  that  selfish  intolerance  which  was 
the  main  feature  of  all  their  proceedings,  they  resolved 
that  the  faithful  people  who  adhered  to  the  Church, 
should  be  deprived  of  the  valued  privilege  of  hearing 
the  Word  and  receiving  the  Sacraments  from  those 
persons,  whom  they  had  been  taught  to  regard  as  the 
■authorized  priests  of  God.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Sage  and 
others  of  his  brethren  were  dragged  before  the  privy- 
council,  and  ordered  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and 
assurance;  and  when  they  candidly  avowed  that  their 
conscientious  scruples  would  not  permit  them  to  comply 
with  the  mandate,  they  were  not  only  "  forbidden  to 
exercise  any  part  of  their  ministerial  function  within 
the  city,  but  also  banished  thence  by  an  act  of  the 
council."  It  must  be  remembered,  that  those  respec- 
table men  had  already  suffered  the  "  loss  of  all  things" 
without  complaint,  and  passively  obeying  the  rigorous 
laws  of  the  Convention,  had  retired  into  private  life  that 
they  might  possess  "  a  conscience  void  of  ofience  ;"  but 
even  here  they  were  not  allowed  to  remain  in  peace. 
This  is  mentioned  merely  to  show  that  Presbyterianism 
has  not  always  been  that  friend  of  "  civil  and  religious 
liberty,"  and  "  freedom  of  conscience,"  which  its  warm 
supporters  and  advocates  in  later  times  would  persuade 
us  to  believe. 

From  Edinburgh  he  retired  to  Kinross,  and  was  after- 
wards chaplain  in  the  family  of  the  Countess  of  Callen- 
dar,  and  tutor  to  the  young  earl.  When  his  engagement 
with  Lady  Callendar  terminated,  he  became  chaplain  to 


276  SAGE. 

Sir  James   Stewart,  of  Grandtully.      While   officiating 
in   the   "  meeting  house  "   at  Edinhurgh,   he  had  com- 
menced the   polemical  warfare   which   ended  only  with 
his  life,  and  had  sent  forth  some  of  those  controversial 
works  which  are  such  lasting  monuments  of  his  learning, 
abilities,  and  zeal.      It  seems  to  have  been  a  principle 
with   this   eminent  defender  of  Episcopacy  to  suffer  no 
assailant,  in  the  least  worthy  of  an  opponent,  to  remain 
long   unmatched   in  the  arena    of  controversy,    and   to 
permit  no  public   circumstance  to  pass   by  in    silence, 
if,    by   interfering,   there    was    the    slightest   chance    of 
either  vindicating  or  advancing  "  the  suffering  Church." 
Thus,   wherever  he  was,   his  watchful  eye  was  intently 
fixed  upon  the   movements  of  the   enemy,  and   closely 
following  them  through  all  their  torturous  paths ;  while 
his    ready   pen,    directed    by   learning    and    zeal,    was 
exerted    in   providing   a   counteracting   remedy    against 
their   erroneous    statements    and  hostile    designs.      Al- 
though,   therefore,    he  had    previousely   written   one   or 
two  able  pamphlets,  which    seemed  to  be  called  for  by 
passing  events,   his  leasure  and    retirement  at  Kinross, 
afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  executing  a  larger  and 
more  important  work.      Accordingly,    at   this    time,   he 
devoted    himself   to   writing    a    treatise    entitled   "  The 
Fundamental   Charter  of  Presbytery,  &c.  examined  and 
disproved ;  "   and  w^hen  it  was    finished,   he    sent   it    to 
London    to  be   published  ;    for   as   he  says   himself  in 
another  place  "  it  were  easier  to  pluck  a  star  from  the 
firmament  than  to  get  anything  published  in  Scotland 
against  the   tyranny  of  Presbytery,  or  in  vindication  of 
Episcopacy."     The  utmost  care  w^as  used  to  conceal  the 
name  of  the  author  of  these  offensive  works,  and  it  was 
hoped  that    the    distance   of   the   place   of  publication 
would  have  assisted  to  screen  him  from  the  notice  of 
his  enemies.      In  this,   however,   his  friends  were  dis- 
appointed, and  upon  an  early  occasion  he  had  a  toler- 
ably strong  proof  given  him,  that  he  was  a  "  marked 


SAGE.  377 

man,"  and  had  stirred  up  the  wrath  of  the  Presbyterians 
against  himself. 

Being  actuated  by  a  great  desire  to  see  some  dear 
friends  in  Edinburgh,  and  having  some  private  business 
to  transact  there,  he  ventured  to  revisit  the  metropoUs ; 
but  he  had  no  sooner  appeared  upon  the  street  than  a 
privy-councillor,  "  whose  greatest  pleasure  was  to  per- 
secute the  Episcopal  clergy,"  lodged  intimation  against 
him,  and  being  apprehended,  he  was  held  to  bail  to  quit 
the  town  forthwith,  although  the  authorities  connived 
at  many  of  those  who  had  been  previously  banished  with 
him,  remaining  in  it.  Expelled  again  from  Edinburgh 
by  this  severe  order,  he  returned  to  Kinross,  and  still 
further  employed  his  learned  and  eloquent  pen  in  de- 
fence of  the  Church,  and  in  confirmation  of  her  prin- 
ciples. At  this  time  he  reared  that  invincible  bulwark 
of  Diocesan  Episcopacy,  entitled  the  "  Cyprianic  Age," 
the  appearance  of  which  sharpened  the  resentment  of 
the  Presbyterians,  and  made  them  doubly  anxious  to 
secure  and  silence  so  strenuous  and  powerful  an  oppo- 
nent. 

The  most  severe  blow  inflicted  upon  the  Episcopal 
clergy  was  dealt  to  them  in  1695.  An  act  of  parliament 
was  then  passed  "  prohibiting  and  discharging  any  Epis- 
copal minister  from  hajnizing  any  children,  or  solem- 
nizing marriage  betwixt  any  parties  in  all  time  coming, 
under  pain  of  imprisonment"  and  perpetual  exile!  Like 
the  Apostles  when  prohibited  to  preach  any  more  in  the 
Name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  clergy  chose  rather  to 
obey  the  voice  of  God  than  the  commands  of  men,  and 
using  every  precautionary  method  for  avoiding  detection, 
they  went  about  administering  the  Sacraments  of  reli- 
gion, and  preaching  the  Gospel  to  those,  who  knew  the 
value  of  their  spiritual!  authority,  and  adhered  through 
"evil  report  and  good  report"  to  their  ministry.  In 
vain  did  the  EpiscopaUans  expostulate  against  the  seve- 
rity of  the  enactment,   and  represent   it  as  striking  at 

VOL.  VIII.  B    B 


278  SAGE. 

the  very  root  of  their  faith,  which  required  them  at 
least  to  have  the  Sacrments  performed  by  proper  admin- 
istrators— the  government  was  deaf  to  their  earnest 
entreaties,  and  their  rehgious  opponents  exulted  over 
their  depressed  condition.  In  this  state  they  remained 
until  the  death  of  William  in  1702,  when  a  brighter 
day  dawned,  and  induced  them  to  hope  that  the  time 
was  now  approaching  when  they  would  obtain  "  gentler 
and  more  equitable  treatment."  Queen  Anne  ascended 
the  throne  of  her  father,  and  her  known  attachment 
to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
led  the  members  of  the  suffering  sister  Church  in  Scot- 
land to  expect  that  she  would  sympathize  wdth  them, 
and  shelter  them  under  her  powerful  protection,  from 
the  tyranny  of  their  schisraatical  countrymen  ;  nor  were 
they  altogether  disappointed.  Although  the  expected 
relief  did  not  arrive  so  soon  as  they  could  have  wished, 
the  soothing  answer  which  the  queen  gave  to  their 
address  and  petition  in  the  beginning  of  her  reign,  and 
her  pointed  discouragement  of  all  legal  prosecutions 
against  them,  greatly  ameliorated  the  distressed  state 
of  the  Church,  and  revived  the  drooping  spirits  of  her 
members.  The  bare  idea  of  toleration  being  granted 
to  the  fallen  Church — an  event  to  which  the  course  of 
things  pointed  as  likely  to  happen — roused  the  fears  and 
animosity  of  the  Presbyterians  :  and  their  leading  minis- 
ters, in  their  sermons  on  public  occasions,  and  through 
the  press,  inveighed  loudly  against  it.  Hence  in  1703, 
a  fierce  polemical  strife  raged  on  this  subject,  and 
various  combatants  appeared  on  the  field — such  as  the 
renowned  David  Williamson  and  Mr.  George  Meldrum, 
on  the  side  of  the  Kirk.  Among  the  foremost  of  the 
defenders  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  rights  of  conscience 
on  this  occasion,  Mr.  Sage  came  forth,  and'seizing  upon 
Mr.  Meldrum's  "  Reasons  against  Toleration,"  he  over- 
turned them  by  that  masterly  reply  so  well  known  under 
the  title  of  the  "  Reasonableness  of  Toleration,"  which 


SAGE.  279 

demonstrates  not  only  the  sound  uncompromizing  Church 
principles  of  our  author,  but  the  solidity  of  his  learning, 
and  the  acuteness  of  his  reasoning  powers.  Though 
Mr.  Sage  did  not  live  to  reap  the  full  reward  of  his 
labour,  his  writings  had  an  effect  even  at  the  moment. 
The  Church  for  a  year  or  more  "  had  rest "  from  out- 
ward persecution,  and  a  mighty  change  was  working 
in  the  human  mind  with  regard  to  the  futility  of  the 
endeavour  to  fetter  the  conscience  by  acts  of  parliament, 
and  to  coerce  a  man  against  his  convictions  to  own 
whatever  system  of  religion  the  civil  powers  may  choose 
to  establish. 

During  this  brief  period  of  tranquility,  the  attention 
of  the  governors  of  the  Church  was  turned  upon  them- 
selves, and  one  of  the  most  anxious  subjects  which 
occupied  their  minds  was  the  duty  of  providing  for  the 
future  succession  of  the  Episcopal  Order.  By  the  death 
of  the  aged  primate,  Dr.  Ross,  in  1704,  the  number  of 
bishops  was  reduced  to  five,  most  of  whom,  worn  out 
with  years  and  calamity,  were  tottering  on  the  brink  of 
the  grave.  In  order,  therefore,  that  the  Apostolic  line 
might  not  be  interrupted,  the  venerable  survivors  re- 
solved to  commit  the  sacred  "  Deposit"  with  which  they 
had  been  entrusted,  to  "  other  faithful  men,  apt  to  teach, 
and  govern."  In  consequence  of  this  determination, 
Mr.  Sage,  and  Mr.  Fullarton  the  ejected  ministers  of 
Paisley,  were  selected  by  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  as 
persons  fit  to  be  elevated  to  the  episcopate,  and  were 
duly  and  canonically  consecrated  "  in  sacrario "  of  the 
house  of  Archbishop  Paterson,  at  Edinburgh,  on  the 
25th  of  January,  1705  ;  the  Archbishop,  Bishop  Rose  of 
Edinburgh,  and  Bishop  Douglas  of  Dunblane  perform- 
ing the  holy  rite. 

While  those  persons  were  thus  solemnly  invested  with 
the  episcopate,  an  agreement  was  entered  into  that  they 
were  not  to  have  diocesan  authority,  or  to  interfere  at  all 
in  the  government  of  the  Church.     Expediency  and  the 


^80  SAGE. 

exigency  of  the  Church  were  the  inducements  which  led 
the  bishops  to  insist  on  this  stipulation,  and  to  make  a 
temporary  deviation  from  the  usual  rule.  It  answered, 
indeed,  the  immediate  purpose,  for  which  it  was  designed 
by  those  excellent  men,  but  like  all  other  plans  founded 
upon  a  short  sighted  policy,  it  was  at  length  productive 
of  great  evil,  and  involved  the  Church  in  confusion 
and  unseemly  disputes.  The  controversies  between  the 
"  College  Party  "  and  the  assertors  of  "  Diocesan  Epis- 
copacy," are  too  well  known  to  require  further  notice 
here. 

Being  raised  to  the  episcopate,  Bishop  Sage  seems  to 
have  continued  in  the  Grandtully  family,  executing  his 
high  and  useful  duties  for  the  benefit  of  the  limited 
circle  around  him. 

Bishop  Sage  died  in  Edinburgh,  17th  June,  1711. 
His  works  are  : — The  Fundamental  Charter  ;  The 
Cyprianic  Age ;  The  Vindication  of  the  Cyprianic 
Age ;  An  Account  of  the  late  Establishment  of  Pres- 
bytery by  the  Parliament  of  Scotland  in  1690;  Some 
Kemarks  in  a  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  in  the  City  to  a 
Minister  in  the  Country,  on  Mr.  David  Williamson's 
Sermon  before  the  General  Assembly,  Edinburgh,  1703  ; 
A  Brief  Examination  of  some  things  in  Mr.  Meldrum's 
Sermon  preached  on  the  6th  of  May,  1703,  against  a 
Toleration  to  those  of  the  Episcopal  Persuasion;  The 
Eeasonableness  of  a  Toleration  of  those  of  the  Episcopal 
Persuasion  inquired  into  purely  on  Church  Principles, 
1704  ;  The  Life  of  Gawin  Douglas,  1710  ;  and  an  intro- 
duction to  the  Works  of  Drummond  of  Hawthornden, 
to  which  publication  his  friend  the  learned  Ruddiman 
lent  his  assistance.  Bishop  Sage  also  wrote  the  second 
and  third  Letters  concerning  the  persecution  of  the 
Episcopal  Clergy  in  Scotland,  and  left  several  unfinished 
MSS.,  one  intended  to  have  been  a  system  of  Divinity, 
in  which  the  Church  and  the  Sacraments,  as  the  chan- 
nels of  grace,  were  to  have  occupied  their  proper  place ; 


SAINCTES.  281 

another  containing  a  review  of  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession— a  Treatise  on  the  Culdees,  and  a  History  of  the 
Commission  of  the  General  Assembly. — Life  prejiiced  to 
Works.     Bishop  Gillan.     Bishop  Russell. 


SAGITTARIUS,    GASPAR. 

Gaspar  Sagittarius  was  born  at  Lunenburg,  in  1643, 
and  in  1674,  became  professor  of  history  at  Halle.  He 
died  in  1674.  He  wrote  : — On  Oracles;  On  the  Gates 
of  the  Ancients;  The  Succession  of  the  Princes  of 
Orange;  History  of  the  City  of  Herderwich  ;  Tractatus 
Varii  de  Historia  Legenda;  Historia  Antiqua  Nori- 
bergae ;  Origin  of  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick  ;  History  of 
Lubeck;  Antiquities  of  the  Kingdom  of  Thuringia; 
History  of  the  Marquises  and  Electors  of  Brandenburg, 
and  many  others,  enumerated  by  Niceron. — Niceron. 
Moreri. 


SAINCTES,    CLAUDE    DE. 

Claude  de  Satnctes,  in  Latin  Sanctetius,  was  born  at 
Perche,  in  1595,  and  was  admitted  a  canon  regular  of 
St.  Cheron,  near  Chartres,  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  After 
passing  through  various  preferments  he  was,  in  1561, 
appointed  principal  of  the  College  of  Boissy,  at  Paris, 
and  was  employed  as  a  champion  for  the  Romish  cause 
at  the  Conference  of  Poissy.  He  was  one  of  the  twelve 
French  doctors  sent  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  in 
1575,  he  was  made  by  Henry  III.  Bishop  of  Evreux. 
Forgetful  of  the  royal  favour  he  had  received,  he  sup- 
ported with  vehemence  the  interests  of  the  League. 
Having  been  made  prisoner  by  the  troops  of  Henry  IV.  his 
papers  were  examined,  and  were  found  to  contain  an 
attempt  to  justify  the  assassination  of  Henry  III.;  for 
B  b3 


282  SALTMARSH. 

which  he  was  tried  and  condemned  to  be  put  to  death 
as  a  traitor.  However,  in  consequence  of  the  interces- 
sion of  the  Cardinal  de  Bourbon,  and  some  other  pre- 
lates, his  life  was  spared,  and  his  sentence  commuted 
for  perpetual  imprisonment.  He  died  at  the  Castle  of 
Crevecseur  in  1591,  when  about  sixty-six  years  of  age. 
The  most  considerable  of  his  works  are  : — a  Treatise 
in  Latin  On  the  Eucharist,  forming  a  large  volume  inr 
folio,  which  was  printed  in  1576,  and  has  been  much 
used  by  subsequent  writers  on  the  Catholic  side  of  the 
question ;  and  an  edition  of  a  curious  collection,  entitled, 
Liturgise,  sive  Missse  Sanctorum  Patrum  :  Jacobi  Apos- 
toli,  et  Fratris  Domini,  Basilii  magni,  Johannis  Chry- 
sostomi,  &c.,  1560,  8vo,  including  several  chapters  of  his 
own  composition.  Excepting  The  Acts  of  the  Council 
of  Rouen  in  1581,  which  he  published  in  Latin  and 
French,  and  his  own  Synodal  Statutes,  his  other  works 
were  all  controversial. — Dupin.     Moreri. 


SALMERON,    ALPHONSO. 

Alphonso  Salmeron  was  born  at  Toledo,  in  1516. 
Going  to  Paris  to  complete  his  studies,  he,  with  his 
friend  James  Laynez,  surrendered  himself  to  the  gui- 
dance of  Ignatius  Loyola,  underwent  the  initiating 
discipline  of  the  spiritual  exercises,  and  came  forth 
from  the  process  fired  with  zeal  to  carry  forward  the 
intentions  of  his  master.  He  died  at  Naples,  in  1585. 
His  works  which  contain  Commentaries  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, were  published  in  8  vols.  fol.  (See  the  Life  of 
Loyola.) 


SALTMARSH,    JOHN. 

John  Saltmarsh  was  a  Yorkshireman,  and  educated  at 


SAMPSON.  2S3 

Magdalen  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  a  chaplain  to  the 
army  of  Fairfax,  a  rebel  in  politics,  >  and  an  Antinomian 
in  religion.  He  died  at  Elford,  in  Essex,  in  1647.  He 
published  : — Free  Orace,  or  the  Flowings  of  Christ's 
Blood  freely  to  Sinners ;  Shadows  flying  away ;  The 
Smoak  in  the  Temple  ;  D awnings  of  Light ;  Sparkles 
of  Glory ;  and,  Wonderful  Predictions.  These  books 
made  a  great  noise,  and  were  answered  by  writers  of 
no  ordinary  name,  particularly  by  the  learned  Thomas 
Gataker. — Gen.  Diet. 


SAMPSON,    THOMAS. 

The  public  history  of  Sampson  is  so  closely  connected 
with  that  of  Humphrey,  that  to  the  Life  of  Humphrey 
the  reader  is  referred.  (See  also  the  Life  of  Parker.) 
Thomas  Sampson  was  born  at  Playford,  in  Surrey,  about 
the  year  1617,  and,  according  to  Strype,  was  educated 
at  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge,  according  to  Wood,  at 
Oxford.  He  objected  to  the  habits  at  his  ordination  by 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  seems  to  have  yielded  to  the 
scruples  expressed  by  himself  and  some  others.  In 
1551,  he  was  presented  to  the  living  of  All  Hallows, 
Bread  Street,  London,  which  he  resigned  in  1553.  In 
1554,  he  was  promoted  to  the  Deanery  of  Chichester. 
On  the  accession  of  Mary,  he  at  first  concealed  himself, 
aud  then  fled  to  Strasburg,  where  he  found  a  refuge. 
He  had  some  share  in  the  Geneva  Bible.  On  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth  he  returned  home,  not  only  confirmed 
in  his  aversion  to  the  habits,  but  with  such  a  dislike 
to  the  episcopal  office,  that  he  refused  the  Bishopric 
of  Norwich.  He  continued,  however,  to  preach,  parti- 
cularly at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  where  his  wonderful  memory 
and  eloquence  were  greatly  admired.  In  September, 
1560,  he  wa^s  made  a  prebendary  of  Durham;  and  in 
Michaelmas  term,  1561,  he  was  installed  Dean  of  Christ 


284  SAMPSON. 

Church,  Oxford.  At  this  time  Sampson  and  Humphrey 
were  the  only  Proteetant  preachers  at  Oxford  of  any 
celebrity.  In  1562,  he  resigned  his  prebend  of  Durham, 
and  became  so  open  and  zealous  in  his  invectives  against 
the  habits,  that,  after  considerable  forbearance,  he  was 
cited,  in  1564,  with  Dr.  Humphrey,  before  the  high 
commission  court  at  Lambeth,  and  was  deprived  of  his 
deanery,  and  for  some  time  imprisoned.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  nonconformity,  however,  he  was  presented,  in 
1568,  to  the  mastership  of  Wigston  Hospital,  at  Lei- 
cester, and  had  likewise,  according  to  Wood,  a  prebend 
in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  London.  The  queen  also 
permitted  him  to  hold  the  theological  lectureship  at 
Whittington  College,  in  the  metropolis,  to  which  he  had 
been  elected  by  the  Cloth  Workers'  Company. 

Mr.  Soames  observes  that  Sampson  and  Humphrey 
have  left  an  authentic  record  of  their  sentiments,  on  the 
vesture  question,  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger,  conjointly 
signed.  The  learned  Swiss  had  argued  for  the  habits 
on  civil  grounds.  His  English  correspondents  consider 
this  reasoning  unsound.  Usages  derived  from  the 
enemies  of  their  religion,  they  contend  could  not  be 
adopted  without  injuring  it.  Against  such  apparel,  too, 
they  protested,  as  a  revival  of  abrogated  Mosaic  cere- 
monies, and  an  unsuitable  adaptation  to  the  simple 
ministry  of  Christ,  of  that  which  had  served  the  Popish 
priesthood  for  theatric  pomp.  To  that  body  and  its 
friends  they  represent  this  concession  as  a  triumph : 
occasioning  exulting  appeals  to  Otho's  Constitutions, 
and  the  Pontifical,  in  proof  that  Protestants  had  been 
glad  of  dresses  borrowed  from  their  adversaries.  This 
concession  is  lamented  also  as  redolent  of  monkery, 
no  less  than  of  Popery  and  Judaism,  as  savouring  of 
Pharisaical  precision ;  as  the  first  step  by  which  a  con- 
ceit of  sanctity  in  garments  may  again  creep  over  men. 
Bucer  is  afterwards  mentioned  as  an  authority  for  deny- 
ing that  prescribed  apparel  agrees  with  Christian  liberty. 


SAMPSON.  285 

He  wished  all  such  distinctions  abolished,  mindful  of 
present  abuse,  anxious  for  a  fuller  declaration  of  detest- 
ing Antichrist,  for  a  removal  of  all  dissension  among 
brethren.  Such  were  the  reasons  why  they  strove  to 
have  every  trace  of  Antichristian  superstition  buried  in 
eternal  oblivion  ;  why  they  could  not  agree  to  the  obtru- 
sion of  that  which  does  not  edify  the  Church;  why 
they  felt  unable  to  join  sound  doctrine  with  halting 
worship ;  why  they  would  not  maim  Christ,  when  He 
might  be  entire,  pure,  and  perfect ;  why  they  preferred 
a  pattern  from  reformed  brethren,  to  one  from  Popish 
enemies ;  why  they  shrank  from  dishonouring  the  ser- 
vice of  that  heavenly  leader  whom  they  and  their  foreign 
friends  equally  obeyed,  by  raising  hostile  banners,  which 
it  was  their  duty  to  demolish  and  detest. 

Everything  from  such  men  as  Sampson  and  Hum* 
phrey,  must  at  least  be  specious.  Their  objections 
have  but  slender  chance  of  winning  any  higher  character 
in  modern  times.  But  ability,  aided  by  perseverance, 
will  command  attention  from  any  age.  In  this  case,  too, 
were  high  moral  worth,  considerable  station,  and  recent 
sufferings.  Opposition  to  power  and  estahlished  autho- 
rity is,  besides,  always  popular.  The  dean  of  Christ 
Church,  and  the  president  of  Magdalen,  became,  accor- 
dingly, the  leaders  of  a  powerful,  energetic,  and  uncom- 
promising party.  This  must,  however,  be  considered 
as  accidental,  neither  of  these  remarkable  men,  appa- 
rently, having  ever  calculated  upon  any  such  distinction, 
or  being  likely  to  desire  it.  Humphrey's  disposition 
was,  indeed,  eminently  mild  and  moderate.  Sampson 
showed  himself  more  unbending,  but  his  temper  was 
very  different  from  that  of  many  who  continued  t?ie 
resistance  that  he  and  his  brother-head  began. 

He  died  in  1589.  He  married  Latimer's  niece,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons.  His  works  are : — Letter  to 
the  professors  of  Christ's  Gospel,  in  the  parish  of  All- 
hallows  in  Bread-street,    Strasburg,  1554,  8vo  ;  this  is 


^86  SANCROFt. 

reprinted  in  the  Appendix  to  Strype's  Ecclesiastical 
Memorials :  A  Warning  to  take  heed  of  Fowler's  Psalter, 
London,  1576  and  1578,  Svo;  this  was  a  Popish  Psalter, 
published  by  John  Fowler,  once  a  Fellow  of  New  College, 
Oxford,  but  who  went  abroad,  turned  printer,  and  printed 
the  Popish  controversial  works  for  some  years  ;  Brief 
Collection  of  the  Church  and  Ceremonies  thereof;  and. 
Prayers  and  Meditations  Apostolike  ;  gathered  and 
framed  out  of  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles.  He  was 
also  editor  of  Two  Sermons  of  John  Bradford,  on  Ptepen- 
tance,  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  Baker  ascribes  to  him 
a  Translation  of  a  Sermon  of  John  Chrysostome,  of 
Pacience,  of  the  End  of  the  World,  and  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, 1550,  Svo;  and  of  An  Homelye  of  the  Piesurrec- 
tion  of  Christ  by  John  Brentius,  1550,  8vo. — Strpye. 
Wood.    Soames. 


SANCEOFT,    WILLIAM. 

William  Sancroft  was  born  at  Fresingfield,  in  Suffolk, 
in  1616.  He  received  his  primary  education  at  Bury 
School,  and  proceeded  thence  to  Emanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, of  which  he  became  a  fellow  in  1642.  Several 
Letters  addressed  by  him  to  his  father  have  been  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  D'oyley,  and  they  impress  us  with  the 
great  amiability  of  the  writer,  especially  one  which 
relates  to  the  death  of  a  college  friend.  The  Dissenters 
being  in  the  ascendant  in  1649,  they  deprived  him  of 
his  fellowship.  But  though  driven  from  the  university, 
and  silenced  in  the  pulpit,  he  knew  that  the  press  was 
still  open  to  him,  and  through  it  he  sought  to  further 
the  cause  of  social  order  and  true  religion.  Two  im- 
portant publications  proceeded  about  this  time  from  his 
pen,  which  were  extensively  circulated  and  read  with 
great  avidity  ;  both  admirably  adapted  as  prescriptions 
to  heal  the  distempers  of  the  times,  and  to  induce  a 
more  healthful  state  of  the  political  body. 


SANCROFT.  287 

The  first  of  these,  in  Latin,  was  called  Fur  Praedes- 
tinatus,  being  intended  to  expose  the  doctrines  of  rigid 
Calvinism,  the  extensive  prevalence  of  which  had  ad- 
vanced very  far  in  destroying  all  just  and  sound  views 
of  religion.  The  second,  entitled  "  Modern  Policies, 
taken  from  Machiavel,  Borgia,  and  other  choice  authors," 
was  designed  to  hold  up  to  deserved  contempt  the  hollow 
and  false  policy  which  had  been  too  successful  in  raising 
many  worthless  and  profligate  persons  to  stations  of 
authority. 

He  seems  to  have  supported  himself  on  his  small 
paternal  property,  and  out  of  that  he  saved  something 
to  assist  poor  Churchmen  worse  off  than  himself.  In 
1659,  he  went  abroad,  but  did  not  stay  long,  as  at  the 
Restoration  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  Dr.  Cosin, 
now  appointed  to  the  Bishopric  of  Durham,  and  at  the 
consecration  of  his  patron,  with  six  other  new  bishops, 
he  was  selected  to  be  the  preacher.  The  Convocation 
assembled  on  the  8th  of  May,  1661,  in  which  the  last 
revision  of  our  Prayer  Book  took  place.  It  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Bancroft  was  eminently  useful  in  assis- 
ting in  these  alterations,  although  it  is  not  easy  to  ascer- 
tain on  what  particular  parts  of  the  work,  or  to  what 
extent,  his  services  were  employed.  As  he  was  not  a 
member  of  the  Convocation  at  the  time,  for  he  then  held 
no  preferments,  his  name  does  not  appear  among  those 
to  whom  the  preparation  of  any  portion  of  the  work  was 
committed;  and  it  seems  that  he  was  only  privately 
employed,  probably  by  the  recommendation  of  Bishop 
Cosin,  who  bore  a  considerable  share  in  this  business, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  his 
talents,  learning,  and  judgment. 

However  it  is  specially  recorded  that  he  assisted  in 
rectifying  the  calendar  and  the  rubrics,  and  that,  after  the 
work  was  completed,  he  was  one  of  those  appointed 
by  an  order  of  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation  for  the 
supervision  of  the  press.     In  the  common  accounts  of 


^88  SANCROFT. 

his  life,  it  is  stated  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 
Forms  of  Prayer  prepared  for  the  30th  of  January  and 
'^9th  of  May.  But  this  does  not  appear  from  any  com- 
petent authority.  Bishop  Burnet  gives  a  remarkable 
account  of  this  matter :  he  states,  that  when  the  new 
offices  for  the  30th  of  January  and  the  29th  of  May 
were  under  preparation,  Sancroft  drew  them  up  in  too 
high  a  strain ;  that  those  which  he  produced  were  in 
consequence  rejected,  and  others  of  a  more  moderate 
character  adopted  in  their  room.  He  adds,  that,  after- 
wards, when  Sancroft  was  advanced  to  the  See  of  Can- 
terbury, he  procured  the  substitution  of  his  own  offices 
in  the  place  of  those  formerly  adopted,  and  got  them 
"  published  by  the  king's  authority,  at  a  time  when  so 
high  a  style  as  was  in  them  did  not  sound  well  to  the 
nation." 

As  Burnet  himself  had  no  concern  in  the  transaction, 
and  does  not  state  the  authority  from  which  he  derived 
his  information,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  in  what 
degree  there  is  any  foundation  for  his  representation. 
Two  circumstances,  however,  should  be  mentioned  to 
show  that  his  statements  are  not  strictly  accurate.  The 
first  is,  that,  in  the  office  for  the  30th  of  January,  no 
alteration  of  the  slightest  importance  was  made  when 
Sancroft  held  the  primacy,  or  has  been  made  at  any 
period  subsequently  to  the  first  preparation  of  it :  for 
it  stands  now,  with  very  immaterial  exceptions,  precisely 
in  the  same  form  as  it  did  at  first.  The  second  is,  that 
the  office  for  the  29th  of  May,  as  it  was  adopted  with 
alterations  after  the  death  of  Charles  II.  and  during  the 
primacy  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  could  not  have  been 
precisely  that  which  he  first  proposed  but  which  was 
rejected.  For  the  29th  day  of  May  being  the  day  of 
King  Charles's  birth,  as  well  as  of  his  return,  the  office 
during  his  life-time  was  adapted  to  both  these  events. 
After  his  death,  alterations  were  necessarily  required, 
in  order  to  make  the  office  commemorative  solely  of  the 


SANCROFT.  28a 

Restoration  of  the  royal  family.  It  is  true  that  some 
further  alterations  and  substitutions  took  place  at  this 
time ;  and  perhaps  it  may  be  allowed  that  mention  is 
made  in  the  new  office  of  the  Rebellion,  and  those  con- 
cerned in  it,  in  stronger  terms  than  had  been  done  in 
the  former  office,  and  this  is  probably  the  foundation 
of  Burnet's  assertion,  that  an  office  was  adopted  "  of 
a  higher  strain."  These  alterations  were  of  course  made 
under  Archbishop  Sancroft's  authority,  although  the  fact 
of  their  having  been  introduced  by  himself,  rests  only 
on  the  statement  of  Bishop  Burnet. 

The  rapidity  of  Sancroft's  rise  seems  to  be  surprising, 
as  industrious  mediocrity  rather  than  great  talents  or 
profound  learning  was  his  characteristic.  In  1662,  he 
was  elected  master  of  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge ;  in 
1664,  he  was  appointed  Dean  of  York,  and  soon  after 
he  was  removed  to  the  Deanery  of  St.  Paul's.  In  this 
new  situation  he  contributed  much  to  the  repairing  of  the 
cathedral ;  and  when  it  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  of 
London,  he  gave  £1400  towards  rebuilding  it.  In 
1668,  he  was  presented  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Canter- 
bury by  Charles  II.,  who,  in  1677,  raised  him  to  the 
See  of  Canterbury. 

A  more  meek  and  gentle  spirit  few  persons  have  pos- 
sessed than  Archbishop  Sancroft,  but  he  was  called  to 
take  his  part  in  stirring  times,  when  his  firm  principles 
enabled  him  to  act  a  part  which,  if  not  the  wisest  accor- 
ding to  our  present  notions,  was  certainly  such  as  to 
command  universal  respect.  And  occasions  were  not 
wanting,  on  which  Archbishop  Sancroft  maintained  the 
disciphne  of  the  Church  with  a  just  degree  of  dignity 
and  firmness.  A  remarkable  and  unusual  instance  of 
this  occurred  in  his  suspension  of  Dr.  Thomas  Wood, 
Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry,  from  his  episcopal 
functions,  on  account  of  his  neglect  of  his  diocese  and 
other  misdemeanours.  In  this  bishop  we  have  an  un- 
happy example  of  a  very  undeserving  person  raised  to 

VOL.  VIII.  c    c 


290  SANCROFT. 

that  important  and  dignified  station  in  the  Church  by 
most  unworthy  and  disgraceful  means.  It  is  recorded 
that  he  obtained  his  bishopric  immediately  from  Charles 
II.,  through  the  interest  of  the  Duchess  of  Cleveland, 
and  that  he  recommended  himself  to  her,  by  contriving 
that  his  niece,  a  wealthy  heiress,  to  whom  he  was  guar- 
dian, should  marry  the  Duke  of  Southampton,  son  of 
the  duchess.  After  he  was  placed  in  the  bishopric,  he 
grossly  neglected  the  concerns  of  the  diocese,  residing 
entirely  out  of  it,  and  performing  none  of  the  functions. 
In  addition  to  this,  he  refused  to  build  an  episcopal 
house,  although  he  received  money  for  this  purpose  from 
the  heirs  of  his  predecessor,  and  although  he  cut  down 
from  the  >estates  of  the  see,  as  for  this  building,  timber, 
which  he  afterwards  sold.  The  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury considered  that  a  case  of  this  flagrant  nature 
demanded  the  interference  of  his  metropolitan  authority. 
He  accordingly,  in  April,  1684,  suspended  Bishop  Wood 
from  his  episcopal  dignity  and  functions.  The  bishop 
submitted  some  time  after,  and  the  suspension  was  taken 
off  in  May,  1686.  However,  this  exercise  of  authority, 
temperedwith  mildness,  unfortunately  seems  to  have  failed 
in  producing  the  desired  effect ;  for  the  bishop  appears  to 
have  continued  in  the  habit  of  residing  at  a  distance 
from  his  diocese,  and  of  neglecting  its  concerns. 

Archbishop  Bancroft,  though  enthusiastically  loyal,  was 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  true  religion  and  the  Church  of 
England,  and  when  a  traitor  king  was  on  the  throne, 
who  sought  to  use  his  prerogative  for  the  purpose  of 
introducing  Popery,  he  dared  to  defy  him  and  to  main- 
tain the  sacred  cause  at  the  head  of  which  he  was 
providentially  placed.  He  certainly  acted  too  cautiously 
at  first.  When  James  appointed  illegally  an  ecclesiastical 
commission,  Archbishop  Bancroft  refused  to  act  upon 
it,  though  nominated  its  head,  but  he  only  pleaded  ill- 
health,  though  by  his  being  forbidden  the  court,  it  is 
o\ed.v  that  his  real  feeling  was  understood. 


SANCROFT.  291 

We  must  enter  into  further  detail  in  regard  to  the 
events  of  the  reign  of  James  II.,  and  we  shall  avail 
ourselves  of  the  brief  but  spirited  sketch  of  the  iniqui- 
tous proceedings  of  the  traitor  king,  given  by  Mr. 
Chermside,  in  his  lecture  on  the  trial  and  acquittal 
of  the  Seven  Bishops. 

In  1688,  a  bill  was  drawn  up  and  prepared  to  be  laid 
before  the  parliament,  entitled  "  An  act  for  granting  of 
Liberty  of  Conscience,  without  imposing  of  oaths  and 
tests," — but  before  any  parliamentary  steps  were  taken 
in  the  matter,  the  king  on  the  27th  of  April,  thought 
fit  to  republish  his  declaration  of  indulgence,  and  im- 
mediately thereupon  appeared  the  following  announce- 
ment in  the  Gazette  : — 

"  At  the  Court  at  Whitehall,  May  4th. 

"  It  is  this  day  ordered,  by  his  majesty  in  council,  that 
his  majesty's  late  gracious  declaration,  bearing  date  the 
27th  of  April  last,  be  read  at  the  usual  time  of  divine 
service,  on  the  20th  and  27th  of  this  month,  in  all 
churches  and  chapels,  within  the  cities  of  London  and 
Westminster,  and  ten  miles  thereabout:  and  upon  the 
3rd  and  10th  of  June  next,  in  all  other  churches  and 
chapels  throughout  this  kingdom.  And  it  is  hereby 
further  ordered,  that  the  right  reverend  the  bishops 
cause  the  said  declaration  to  be  sent  and  distributed 
throughout  their  several  and  respective  dioceses  to  be  read 
accordingly." 

This  was  a  blow  well  struck — well  struck,  that  is,  if 
it  should  prove  successful ;  but  if  not,  then  most  disas- 
trous for  the  striker,  as  the  event  shewed  beyond  a  doubt. 
Every  eye  in  England,  Churchman's,  Nonconformist's, 
Romanist's,  must  needs  be  fixed  upon  the  Bishops  of 
the  Church :  the  breathless  anxiety  of  a  whole  nation 
awaited  their  decision,  and  the  decision  must  be  speedy, 
that  is,  if  we  remember  the  difficulties  which  then  im- 
peded communication,  and  seemed  likely  to  preclude  a 


293  SANCROFT. 

ready  concert  between  the  prelates.  The  clergy  of  Lon- 
don  in  those  days  enjoyed,  as  a  body,  a  great  reputation 
for  worth  and  learning.  Fowler  and  Patrick,  Stilling- 
fleet,  Sherlock,  and  Tillotson,  were  of  their  number; 
they  met  in  consultation,  and  determined  for  their  part 
to  refuse  the  reading  of  the  king's  declaration.  This 
resolution  they  made  known  to  the  archbishop,  who  had 
been  busy  in  the  meantime  to  summon  to  his  council  as 
many  of  his  brethren  as  it  was  possible.  A  copy  of  the 
letter  which  he  despatched  to  them  on  the  occasion  is  pre- 
served in  his  own  hand-writing. 

"  My  Lord, — This  is  only  in  my  own  name,  and  in 
the  names  of  some  of  our  brethren,  now  here  upon  this 
place,  earnestly  to  desire  you  immediately  upon  the 
receipt  of  this  letter  to  come  hither  with  what  conve- 
nient speed  you  can,  not  taking  notice  to  any  that  you 
are  sent  for.  Wishing  you  a  prosperous  journey  and 
us  all  a  happy  meeting. 

"  I  remain  your  loving  brother." 

On  the  12th  of  May,  a  meeting  took  place  at  Lambeth, 
where  there  were  present,  besides  Sancroft,  the  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  three  bishops,  Compton,  Turner,  and  White, 
together  with  Tenison ;  and  it  was  then  resolved  not  to 
read  the  declaration;  but  to  petition  the  king  to  dis- 
pense with  the  obedience  of  the  prelates,  and  to  entreat 
all  those  within  reach  of  London  "to  repair  to  the  aid  of 
their  brethren  forthwith.  On  the  18th  another  meeting 
took  place  at  the  archbishop's;  the  proposed  petition 
was  drawn  up,  written  in  the  primate's  own  hand,  and 
subscribed  as  well  by  him  as  by  the  following: — Dr. 
Lloyd,  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  Dr.  Ken,  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  Dr.  Turner,  of  Ely,  Dr.  Lake  of  Chichester,  Dr. 
White,  of  Peterborough,  and  Sir  Jonathan  Trelawney, 
of  Bristol. 


SANCROFT.  ^0S 

**The  humble  petition  of  William,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  of  divers  of  the  suffragan  bishops 
of  that  province  (now  present  with  him,)  in  behalf 
of  themselves  and  others  of  their  absent  brethren, 
and  of  the  clergy  of  their  respective  dioceses, 
humbly  sheweth, — 
*•  That  the  great  averseness  they  find  in  themselves 
to  the  distributing  and  publishing  in  all  their  churches 
your  majesty's  late  declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
proceedeth  neither  from  any  want  of  duty  and  obedience 
to  your  majesty ;  our  holy  mother  the  Church  of  England 
being  both  in  her  principles  and  in  her  practice  unques- 
tionably loyal,  and  having,  to  her  great  honour,  been 
more  than  once  publicly  acknowledged  to  be  so  by  your 
gracious  majesty ;  nor  yet  from  any  want  of  due  tender- 
ness to  Dissenters,  in  relation  to  whom  they  are  willing 
to  come  to  such  a  temper  as  shall  be  thought  fit,  when 
that  matter  shall  be  considered  and  settled  in  parliament 
and  convocation.  But  among  many  other  considerations, 
from  this  especially,  because  that  declaration  is  formed 
upon  such  a  dispensing  power,  as  hath  been  often  de- 
clared illegal  in  parliament,  and  particularly  in  the  years 
1662  and  1672,  and  the  beginning  of  your  majesty's 
reign ;  and  is  a  matter  of  so  great  moment  and  conse- 
quence to  the  whole  nation,  both  in  Church  and  State, 
that  your  petitioners  cannot  in  prudence,  honour,  or 
conscience,  so  far  make  themselves  parties  to  it,  as  the 
distribution  of  it  all  over  the  nation,  and  the  solemn 
publication  of  it  once  and  again,  even  in  God's  house 
and  in  the  time  of  His  Divine  Service,  must  amount  to, 
in  common  and  reasonable  construction. 

"And  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray." 

The  petition  once   drawn   up  and  signed,  there  was 

no  trace  of  hesitation  or  delay  visible  in  the  conduct  of 

the  bishops.   Sancroft,  who   as  we  have  already  stated,- 

had  the  honour  to  be  under  the  king's  especial  displea- 

c  c3 


^U  SANCROFT. 

sure,  for  having  denied  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission 
the  sanction  of  his  venerable  name,  was  unable  to  appear 
at  court,  indeed  had  been  for  two  years  forbidden  so  to 
do. — (See  Life  of  Bishop  Compton.) — But  the  other  six 
subscribers  proceeded  at  once  to  seek  an  interview  from 
the  king,  in  order  to  present  their  petition.  Of  this 
interview  no  better  account  can  be  given  than  that  which 
is  printed  amongst  the  other  MSS.  of  the  archbishop, 
of  which  the  originals  are  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
at  Oxford. 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  the  petition  being 
finished,  all  the  subscribers,  except  the  archbishop,  who 
had  been  forbidden  the  court  almost  two  years  before, 
went  over  to  Whitehall  to  deliver  it  to  the  king.  In 
order  thereto  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  went  first  to  the 
Earl  of  Middleton,  principal  secretary,  in  the  name  of 
all  the  rest,  to  desire  his  assistance  for  the  introducing 
them  to  his  majesty ;  but  he  had  been  sick  for  a  fort- 
night before,  and  so  confined  to  his  chamber.  Then 
St.  Asaph,  (his  brethren  staying  at  the  Earl  of  Dart- 
mouth's house,)  went  and  made  the  like  application  to 
the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  desiring  him  to  peruse  the 
petition,  and  acquaint  his  majesty  with  it,  that  he  might 
not  be  surprised  at  the  delivery  of  it;  and,  withal,  to 
beseech  his  majesty  to  assign  the  time  and  place,  when 
and  where,  they  might  all  attend  him,  and  present  this 
petition.  The  earl  refused  to  inspect  the  petition,  but 
went  immediately  and  acquainted  the  king  with  their 
desire,  and  they  were  presently  thereupon  brought  to 
the  king  in  his  closet,  within  his  bed-chamber,  when  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  with  the  rest  (all  being  upon  their 
knees,)  delivered  their  petition  to  his  majesty.  The 
king  was  pleased  (at  first)  to  receive  the  petitioners  and 
their  petition  very  graciously,  and  upon  the  first  opening 
of  it  to  say.  This  is  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  own  hand  ? 
to  which  the  bishops  replied,  Yes,  sir,  it  is  his  own  hand. 


SANCROFT.  295 

But  the  king  having  read  it  over,  and  then  folding  it  up, 
said  thus,  or  to  this  effect : — 

"  King. — This  is  a  great  surprise  to  me  :  here  are 
strange  words.  I  did  not  expect  this  from  you.  This 
is  a  standard  of  rebellion. 

**  St.  Asaph,  and  some  of  the  rest,  replied,  that  they 
had  adventured  their  lives  for  his  majesty,  and  would 
lose  the  last  drop  of  their  blood  rather  than  lift  a  finger 
against  him. 

"  King, — I  tell  you  this  is  a  standard  of  rebellion.  I 
never  saw  such  an  address. 

"  Bristol  (falling  down  upon  his  knees)  said.  Rebellion ! 
Sir,  I  beseech  your  majesty,  do  not  say  so  hard  a  thing 
of  us.  For  God's  sake  do  not  believe  we  are,  are  can  be, 
guilty  of  a  rebellion.  'Tis  imposible  that  I  or  any  of  my 
family  should  be  so.  Your  majesty  cannot  but  remember 
that  you  sent  me  down  into  Cornwall  to  quell  Monmouth's 
rebellion,  and  I  am  as  ready  to  do  what  I  can  to  quell 
another,  if  there  were  occasion. 

"  Chichester. — Sir,  we  have  quelled  one  rebellion,  and 
will  not  raise  another. 

"  Ely. — We  rebel,  sir  !  We  are  ready  to  die  at  your 
feet. 

"  Bath  and  Wells. — Sir,  I  hope  you  will  give  that 
liberty  to  us  which  you  allow  to  all  mankind. 

"  Peterborough. — Sir,  you  allow  liberty  of  conscience  to 
all  mankind ;  but  really  this  declaration  is  against  our 
conscience. 

"  King. — I  will  keep  this  paper.  'Tis  the  strangest 
address  I  ever  saw  ;  it  tends  to  rebellion.  Do  you  ques- 
tion my  dispensing  powers  ?  Some  of  you  have  printed 
and  preached  for  it  when  it  was  for  your  purpose. 

"  Peterborough. — Sir,  what  we  say  of  the  dispensing 
power  refers  only  to  what  was  declared  in  parliament. 

"  King. — The  dispensing  power  was  never  questioned 
by  the  Church  of  England. 

'•  St.   Asaph. — It   was  declared    against   in   the   first 


296  SANCROFT. 

parliament,  called  by  his  late  majesty,  and  by  that 
which  was  called  by  your  majesty. 

"  King. — (Insisting  upon  the  tendency  of  the  petition 
to  rebellion)  said,  He  would  have  his  declaration  pub- 
lished. 

"  B.  and  W. — We  are  bound  to  fear  God  and  honour 
the  king.  We  desire  to  do  both ;  we  will  honour  you, 
we  must  fear  God. 

"  King. — Is  this  what  I  have  deserved,  who  have  sup- 
ported the  Church  of  England,  and  will  support  it?  I 
will  remember  you  that  have  signed  this  paper,  I  will 
keep  this  paper ;  I  will  not  part  with  it,  I  did  not  expect 
this  from  you  ;  especially  some  of  you.  I  will  be  obeyed 
in  publishing  my  declaration. 

"  B.  and  W. — God's  will  be  done. 

"  King.— What's  that? 

**  B.  and  W. — God's  wiU  be  done,  and  so  said  Peter- 
borough. 

"  King. — If  I  think  fit  to  alter  my  mind,  I  will  send 
to  you.  God  hath  given  me  this  dispensing  power, 
and  I  will  maintain  it.  I  tell  you  there  are  seven 
thousand  men,  and  of  the  Church  of  England  too,  that 
have  not  bowed  their  knees  to  Baal. 

"  This  is  the  sum  of  what  passed ;  as  far  as  the 
bishops  could  recollect  it ;  and  this  being  said  they  were 
dismissed." 

The  same  night  the  petition  was  printed  and  circu- 
lated ;  by  whom  it  is  not  known,  certainly  not  by  the 
bishops  themselves ;  but  all  London  and  all  England 
soon  knew  that  the  Church  and  the  Crown  were  fairly 
confronted.  The  bishops  had  parried  the  blow,  and  the 
king  must  either  strike  again  or  tacitly  allow  himself  to 
be  defeated.  As  for  the  declaration  and  the  order  to 
read  it  in  the  churches,  they  were  waste  paper;  the 
chief  effect  produced  by  this  publication  being  this,  that 
Baxter  and  all  the  wiser  and  truer  of  his  Nonconformist 


SANCROFT.  29t 

brethren,  took  occasion  to  use  the  granted  indulgence  of 
preaching  to  thank  and  to  extol  the  bishops  for  their 
determination.  In  London,,  four  only  of  the  parochial 
clergy  could  be  found  to  read  it — in  all  England  not 
above  two  hundred,  out  of  a  body  of  ten  thousand, 
would  do  so;  and  in  the  diocese  of  Durham,  Bishop 
Crew,  a  creature  of  the  king's,  is  said  to  have  suspended 
nearly  two  hundred  of  his  clergy  for  refusing  to  read  to 
their  people  the  royal  declaration.  Even  in  those  few 
churches  where  the  reading  was  attempted,  the  congre- 
gations in  many  cases  rose  and  left  the  churches  so  soon 
as  the  first  words  were  pronounced.  Such  was  the  case 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  where  Sprat,  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  officiated  as  dean,  and  could  scarce  hold  the 
paper  in  hand  for  trembhng.  At  Whitehall  it  was  read 
by  a  chorister,  for  want  of  a  better ;  at  Sergeant's  Inn, 
the  chief  justice  desiring  it  to  be  read,  the  clerk  signifi- 
cantly declared  that  he  had  forgotten  it.  Similar  scenes 
were  enacted  upon  the  second  of  the  two  appointed  Sun- 
days. On  that  day,  however,  the  27th  of  May,  the  king 
had  taken  his  resolution,  and  late  in  the  evening  a  king's 
messenger  arrived  at  Lambeth  to  serve  upon  the  arch- 
bishop a  summons,  by  which  he  was  required  to  appear 
before  his  majesty  in  council,  on  the  eighth  of  June, 
to  answer  for  a  misdemeanor ;  a  similar  summons  was 
served  at  once  upon  such  others  of  the  right  reverend  peti- 
tioners as  were  then  in  London,  and  despatched  after 
the  absent  ones  into  their  several  dioceses. 

On  the  day  appointed,  about  five  in  the  evening,  the 
whole  seven  attended  at  Whitehall,  and  upon  being  ques- 
tioned by  the  chancellor  and  the  king  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  petition,  whether  it  was  indeed  in  the  arch- 
bishop's hand,  they  at  first,  acting  upon  the  advice  of 
their  counsel,  were  unwilling  to  be  explicit  in  answer. 
The  archbishop  addressed  himself  to  James  and  said, 
"  Sir,  I  am  called  hither  as  a  criminal,  which  I  never 
was  before  in  my  life,  and  little  thought  I  ever  should 


S98  SANCROFT. 

be,  and  especially  before  your  majesty;  but  since  it 
is  my  unhappiness  to  be  so  at  this  time,  I  hope 
your  majesty  will  not  be  offended  that  I  am  cau- 
tious of  answering  questions.  No  man  is  obliged  to 
answer  questions  that  may  tend  to  the  accusing  of 
himself." 

His  majesty  called  this  chicanery,  and  hoped  he  would 
not  deny  his  hand ;  whereupon  Lloyd,  of  St.  Asaph, 
urged  that  all  divines  of  all  Christian  churches  were 
agreed  in  allowing  a  man  in  their  circumstances  to 
refuse  an  answer.  Still  the  king  pressed  for  one,  and 
at  last,  the  primate  said,  that  if  he  gave  one  it  must 
be  at  the  king's  express  command,  "  trusting  to  your 
majesty's  justice  and  generosity  that  we  shall  not  suffer 
for  our  obedience."  The  king  refused  then  to  give  an 
express  command,  and  the  chancellor  bade  them  then 
to  withdraw ;  they  did  so  for  a  short  time,  and,  upon 
their  return,  were  commanded  expressly  by  James  to 
answer,  and  then,  conceiving  their  condition  to  be 
allowed,  they  owned  the  petition.  Again  they  were 
bidden  to  withdraw,  and  a  third  time  were  summoned 
into  the  royal  presence  for  the  purpose  of  being  told 
by  Jeffreys  that  they  should  be  proceeded  against  "  with 
all  fairness,  so  he  was  pleased  to  say,  in  Westminster 
Hall ;  they  were  then  desired  to  enter  into  recogni- 
zances ;  but  to  this  also,  by  the  advice  given  beforehand 
to  them  by  eminent  counsel,  they  objected;  and  although 
the  archbishop  professed  himself  and  his  brethren  ready 
to  appear  and  answer  whensoever  they  should  be  called 
upon,  neither  the  king  nor  the  chancellor  upon  that 
occasion,  nor  the  Earl  of  Berkeley,  who  afterwards 
endeavoured  to  alter  their  determination,  could  prevail 
upon  them  to  disregard  their  determination,  could  pre- 
vail upon  them  to  disregard  their  counsel's  advice. 
The  key  to  their  conduct  on  this  occasion  is  to  be  found 
in  a  letter  from  the  Bishop  of  Ely  to  the  primate  which 
runs  as  follows  :— - 


SANCROFT.  290 

"  Ely  House,  Friday  mom. 
**  May  it  please  your  grace, — We  spent  much  time 
yesternight  with  our  ablest  and  kindest  advisers,  who 
are  unanimous  in  their  opinion,  that  we  should  by  no 
means  answer  particular  questions,  but  keep  to  the 
generals ;  what  are  the  matters  of  misdemeanour  against 
us  ;  and  desire  a  copy  of  our  charge.  Two  of  our  num- 
ber had  a  long  discourse  (even  'till  past  eleven  at 
night)  with  Sir  R.  Sawry,  from  whom  we  received  more 
instruction  than  from  all  the  rest.  That  conference  is 
summed  up  in  the  enclosed  half  sheet  of  paper,  and 
our  measures  of  answering  are  set  down  to  us.  The 
other  papers  are  the  minutes  out  of  the  counsel's  book 
in  my  Lord  Lovelace's  case.  All  our  wise  friends  are 
of  the  mind  that  we  should  give  no  recognizances.  We 
shall  attend  your  grace  between  two  and  three.  (Cum 
deo.)        Your  grace's  most  obedient  servant, 

"Fea.  Ely." 

The  next  step  was  taken  by  the  king  :  the  bishops  were 
committed  to  the  Tower,  by  a  warrant  which  fourteen 
privy  councillors  subscribed,  and  at  the  same  time  an 
order  in  council  (signed  by  nineteen  hands,  amongst 
which  is  observable  that  of  Father  Peter  the  Jesuit)  was 
issued  for  their  prosecution  by  the  law  officers  of  the 
crown  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench. 

Never,  perhaps,  if  we  except  the  day  on  which  these 
same  illustrious  and  venerable  accused  were  taken  from 
their  prison  to  the  Justice-hall  at  Westminster,  never 
were  the  banks  of  lordly  Thames  the  theatre  of  such  a 
scene,  as  they  displayed,  when  these  reverend  champions 
of  a  nation's  and  a  church's  liberties  embarked  under 
an  armed  escort  for  the  Tower  of  London.  You  might 
have  thought,  but  for  their  unwonted  attendants,  that 
these  prelates  were  pacing  in  solemn  procession  the  long 
drawn  isle  of  some  giant  cathedral ;  for  on  the  river's 
banks  a  countless  multitude,  forgetful  of  the  noise  and 


300  SANCROFT. 

riot  of  a  popular  display  of  feeling,  knelt  in  reverence 
to  receive  with  prayers  and  tears  the  dignified  and  calm 
benediction  of  the  persecuted  Churchmen.  Nay,  the 
very  guards  caught  the  spirit  of  the  crowd's  emotion,  for 
they  too  upon  landing,  knelt,  and  craved  the  blessing 
of  their  prisoners.  It  was  a  solemn  hour  too,  that  hour 
of  landing,  it  was  the  time  of  evening  prayer,  and  from 
the  barge  that  brought  them,  the  bishops  forthwith  betook 
themselves  to  the  Tower  Chapel,  where,  by  a  coincidence 
that  did  not  fail  to  strike  the  minds  of  all  men,  the 
second  lesson  for  the  evening  service  proved  to  be  that 
chapter  of  St,  Paul,  in  which  these  fitting  words  occur : 
"  Giving  no  offence  in  anything,  that  the  ministry  be 
not  blamed  ;  but  in  all  things  approving  ourselves  as 
ministers  of  God,  in  much  patience,  in  affiictions,  in 
necessities,  in  distress,    in  stripes,    in    imprisonment." 

The  fifteenth  day  of  June  saw  again  upon  the  river  a 
band  of  prisoners  passing  in  solemnity  and  triumph  to 
their  trial.  A  writ  of  Habeas  brought  the  bishops  upon 
that  day  before  the  King's  Bench.  "  Of  the  immense 
concourse  of  people,"  says  the  Pope's  Nuncio,  writing  to 
his  court  the  events  of  that  day — "  who  received  them 
on  the  banks  of  the  river,  the  majority  in  their  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  were  upon  their  knees ;  the  Arch- 
bishop laid  his  hands  on  the  heads  of  such  as  he  could 
reach,  exhorting  them  to  continue  stedfast  in  their  faith  ; 
they  cried  aloud  that  all  should  kneel,  while  tears  flowed 
from  the  eyes  of  many." 

In  court,  the  bishops  were  attended  by  nine  and 
twenty  peers,  who  had  offered  to  be  their  sureties  in 
case  of  need.  Their  counsel  consisted  of  Sir  Francis 
Pemberton,  and  Mr.  Pollexton,  accounted  the  most 
learned  among  the  elder  lawyers,  Sir  Creswell  Levins, 
who  endeavoured  subsequently  to  back  out  of  the  duty 
of  their  defence,  but  was  compelled  by  the  attornies  to 
proceed,  Sir  Robert  Sawyer,  Mr.  Trely,  and  Mr.  Somers, 
a  man,  as  it  subsequently  proved,  of  superior  intellect 


SANCROFT.  SOi 

and  great  attainments,  who  being  at  that  time  in  his 
thirty-eighth  year,  was  yet  at  one  of  the  consultations 
held  upon  this  matter  objected  to  as  a  person  too  young 
and  too  obscure  to  be  retained  in  so  important  a  cause. 
They  also  had  the  benefit  of  Sir  John  Holt's  advice, 
a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Gray's  Inn,  whose  name  does 
not  appear  in  the  list  of  their  counsel ;  but  who  was 
recommended  to  them  as  a  person  both  able  and  desirous 
to  serve  them,  by  Compton,  the  suspended  Bishop  of 
London.  The  bench  was  as  unfavourable  to  their  cause 
as  it  was  possible  for  it  to  be.  The  Lord  Chief  Justice, 
Sir  Robert  Wright,  and  Mr.  Justice  HoUoway,  had  been 
placed  there  by  the  unscrupulous  James,  to  betray  rather 
than  to  explain  or  to  administer  uprightly  the  law. 
Allibone,  who  is  described  in  contemporaries  as  an 
angry  Papist,  was  virtually  to  try  his  own  cause;  for 
his  seat  on  the  bench  depended  solely  upon  that  dis- 
pensing power  of  the  king  against  which  was  in  effect 
directed  the  petition  of  the  bishops — his  spirit  too  was 
subsequently  shown  by  his  conduct  at  the  Croydon  as- 
sizes, where  in  the  teeth  of  the  acquittal  pronounced 
upon  the  bishops,  he  had  the  audacity  to  stigmatise 
them  in  his  charge  as  guilty  of  a  seditious  libel,  the 
very  accusation  which  had  been  pronounced  null  and 
void  in  the  court  in  which  he  himself  sat  upon  their 
trial.  One  impartial  judge  then  was  all  that  could  be 
counted,  it  was  Mr.  Justice  Powell,  whom,  for  his  im- 
partiality, James  arbitrarily  dismissed  within  a  fortnight 
of  the  bishops'  acquittal. 

The  day's  proceedings  commenced  by  reading  the  writ 
and  return  under  which  the  bishops  were  brought  into 
court.  The  attorney-general  then  moved  that  the  infor- 
mation also  be  read,  and  the  bishops  be  called  upon 
to  plead.  To  which  their  council  objected  on  the 
ground  of  irregularity  in  the  warrant,  and  also  because 
the  bishops  being  peers  of  parliament  could  not  lawfully 
be  committed  for  trial — they  contended,  therefore,  that 

YOL.  VIII,  D    D 


303  SANCKOFT. 

their  lordships  were  not  legally  in  court.  The  bench  over- 
ruled both  objections,  and,  after  three  hours  debating, 
it  was  determined  that  the  bishops  should  plead,  and 
that  without  delay.  They  pleaded  Not  guilty,  and  upon 
their  own  recognizances  (£200  the  archbishop,  £100 
the  rest)  to  appear  on  the  trial,  which  then  was  fixed 
for  the  29th  of  June,  they  were  enlarged.  Even  in 
this  stage  of  the  affair,  the  joy  of  the  people  seems  to 
have  been  unbounded ;  and  yet,  relying  upon  the  temper 
of  the  bench,  hoping,  perhaps,  to  tamper  with  the  jury, 
which  the  king  took  measures  to  effect,  in  a  private 
interview  with  Sir  Samuel  Astry,  clerk  of  the  crown, 
whose  business  it  was  to  form  that  body — the  court 
party  were  confident  enough  as  to  the  result  of  the  trial, 
and  the  ominous  words,  fines,  imprisonment,  suspension, 
found  their  way  into  the  talk  of  the  town. 

Again  the  appointed  day  came  round,  and  again  the 
unshaken  champions  of  the  nation's  and  the  Church's 
right,  came  into  court,  surrounded  by  admiring  friends, 
and  bringing  with  them  the  anxious  earnest  sympathy 
of  almost  all  their  fellow-subjects.  It  was  a  strange 
sight  for  those  who  could  remember  the  ties  which  some 
forty  years  before  had  bound  together  England's  bishops 
and  her  king — who  could  remember  how  Laud's  blood 
shed  upon  the  scaffold  had  been  but  precursor  of  the 
blood  of  Charles :  it  was  strange  for  them  to  see  the 
primate  and  his  brethren  stand  confronted  with  the 
legal  officers  of  James — to  see  the  prelates  of  a  Church 
which  counted  the  father  as  her  martyr  arraigned  as 
seditious  libellers  by  order  of  his  Popish  son. 

But  in  truth,  had  the  circumstances  of  the  case  been 
other  than  they  were,  had  the  question  to  be  tried 
involved  no  such  momentous  consequences  as  it  did, 
had  the  people,  had  the  Church  of  England,  nay  had 
the  whole  of  Protestant  Europe,  possessed  no  interest  so 
vital  and  so  deep  in  the  doings  of  that  day,  as  certainly 
was  theirs,  still  the  very  persons  of  the  calm  and  dignified 


SANCROFT.  303 

accused  bore  with  them  such  character,  such  dignity,  as 
to  make  for  ever  memorable  the  day  which  heard  them 
tried. 

On  the  day  of  their  final  trial  the  bench  was  filled  by 
the  men  mentioned  before,  Wright  and  Powell,  Allibone 
and  Holloway.  The  king's  counsel  first  found  a  difii- 
culty  in  proving  the  hand-writing  of  the  bishops  who 
had  subscribed  the  petition,  and  here  an  important 
witness,  Blaithwaite,  clerk  of  the  privy  council,  was 
forced  at  last  by  Pemberton's  close  questioning  to  ac- 
knowledge the  circumstances  under  which  the  bishops 
had  owned  it  to  the  king;  and  though  no  promise  of 
his  majesty  could  be  adduced  directly  intimating  that 
he  accepted  the  condition  of  impunity  attached  by  them 
to  their  confession — still  it  was  apparent  to  all  men  that 
the  sovereign's  honour  was  tarnished  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  a  confession  made  as  theirs  had  been.  Then  the 
defendants'  counsel  insisted  much  upon  the  indictment 
being  laid  in  a  wrong  county,  in  Middlesex,  instead  of 
Surrey,  where  the  alleged  libel  must  needs,  as  it  was 
shewn,  have  been  written.  After  this  they  objected  to 
the  word  publislimg,  reminding  the  court  that  the  petition 
was  presented  in  the  most  private  way  imaginable  to  the 
king,  and  to  no  other  person.  Hereupon  things  were 
drawing  to  a  close,  the  Chief  Justice  was  beginning  to 
sum  up,  when  he  was  interrupted  by  Mr.  Finch,  who, 
on  behalf  of  the  bishops,  asked  him,  whether  what  had 
been  said  concerning  the  writing  and  publication  was 
evidence  or  no. — "  For,"  said  he,  as  it  seemed  incau- 
tiously, "if  it  be  evidence,  we  have  other  matter  to  offer 
in  answer."  The  king's  solicitor-general  took  advantage 
of  the  interruption  to  send  for  Lord  Sunderland,  the 
president  of  the  council,  who  upon  the  18th  of  May  had 
presented  the  bishops  to  the  king.  The  bishops'  other 
counsel  were  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  Finch,  and  wished  the 
chief  justice  to  proceed  forthwith  ;  this  he  refused  to  do, 
and  an  hour  was  spent  in  waiting  for  Lord  Sunderland, 


804  SANCROFT. 

When  he  came,  his  evidence  given  upon  oath  could  not 
fully  prove  the  delivery  of  the  petition  to  the  king ;  after 
its  giving,  the  bishops  council  were  asked  what  else  they 
had  to  plead.  And  now,  thanks  to  Mr.  Finch's  most 
fortunate  interruption,  as  we  must  call  it  at  this  day,  the 
serious  debate  began  in  which,  with  equal  boldness  and 
skill,  the  defendants'  advocates  disproved  the  charge  of 
seditious  libelling  brought  against  their  clients,  and, 
which  to  the  nation  was  of  weightier  import  still,  estab- 
lished beyond  doubt  the  illegality  of  this  famous  dis- 
pensing power,  the  engine  which  had  wrought  the 
greatest  mischiefs  done  by  James  to  the  State  and  the 
Church  committed  to  his  kingly  care.  Wright  and  Alli- 
bone  charged  against  the  bishops  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. Holloway,  contrary  to  expectation,  found  heart 
to  speak  in  favour  of  them,  for  which  he  shared  the 
disgrace  of  Powell,  who  manfully  maintained  that  the 
charges  of  libel  or  sedition  were  alike  evidently  unproved 
against  the  right  reverend  defendants,  and  asserted  that 
the  declaration  which  they  had  refused  to  read,  sup- 
posed in  the  king  a  power  of  dispensation  unknown  to 
the  laws  of  Britain.  All  night  the  jury  passed  in 
consultation,  and  all  night  long  the  bishops'  friends 
watched  anxiously  the  door  of  the  room  in  which  they 
were  confined.  Next  morning,  between  the  hours  of 
niue  and  ten,  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  shewed  such  as 
you  see  it  in  Mr.  Herbert's  painting  of  the  event.  It 
was  not  seven  men,  nor  seven  bishops,  but  England, 
that  awaited  there  the  saying  of  the  jury's  foreman,  Sir 
Roger  Langley;  and  aa  the  words  Not  Guilty  dropped 
from  that  foreman's  lips,  it  seemed  as  if  all  England 
had  caught  up  and  was  pealing  them.  You  might  have 
said  a  crested  billow,  fierce  but  impotent,  had  dashed 
itself  in  glassy  fragments  against  some  headland  of 
proud  rock  erect,  immovable,  and  that  along  the  shore 
from  bay  to  bay  the  echoing  coast  was  sounding  its 
discomfiture. 


SANCROFT.  305 

This  important  historical  event  it  has  been  necessary 
to  give  at  length,  and  we  have  used  the  words  of 
Mr.  Chermside.  It  is  referred  to  in  several  other  lives. 
The  remainder  of  Archbishop  Bancroft's  career  may  be 
briefly  told.  He  felt  that  he  ought  to  be  a  leader,  and 
yet  must  have  been  conscious  that  he  had  no  strength  of 
mind  to  lead.  He  was  an  excellent  martyr,  but  not 
fitted  for  a  general.  In  the  subsequent  events  of  the 
Revolution,  he  perceived  that  a  Revolution  was  neces- 
sary, and  yet  hesitated  to  transfer  his  oath  of  allegiance. 
He  would  have  accepted  William  as  a  regent,  the  king 
being  pronounced  to  be  incompetent  to  reign,  but  he 
would  not  concede  to  him  the  name  of  sovereign.  For 
refusing  to  take  the  oaths  to  William  and  Mary,  he 
was  suspended,  and  at  last  in  1691,  deprived  of  his 
archbishopric.  He  retired  to  his  paternal  estate  at 
Fresingfield,  respected  by  all  but  the  political  zealots  of 
the  Revolution,  and  reverenced  in  history,  if  not  as  a 
great,  yet  certainly  as  a  good  man ;  who  boldly  defended 
his  Church  against  a  tyrant,  and  yet  rendered  even  to 
that  tyrant  the  allegiance  he  conceived  to  be  due  to  his 
legitimate  sovereign. 

At  Fresingfield,  his  native  place,  he  lived  in  peace 
and  happiness.  After  he  had  made  the  great  sacrifice 
he  had  to  principle,  the  natural  turn  of  his  mind  must 
have  been  to  justify  to  himself  the  line  he  had  taken, 
by  confirming  and  strengthening  that  view  of  things  on 
which  the  resolution  was  founded.  In  addition  to  this, 
his  more  free  and  unreserved  communications  after  his 
retirement  were  principally  maintained  with  persons 
who  had  acted  on  the  same  views  with  himself;  and,  as 
many  of  these  carried  their  feelings  and  prejudices  on 
the  subject  which  divided  them  from  the  rest  of  the 
nation,  much  farther  than  he  did,  the  result  seems  to 
have  been  that  his  mind,  besides  being  confirmed  in  its 
approbation  of  the  part  which  he  had  taken,  gradually 
advanced  to  a  strong  conviction  of  the  error  and  even 

D  D    3 


306  SANCROFT. 

sinfulness  of  the  part  taken  by  others.  Thus,  as  we 
shall  find,  he  was  induced  to  think  and  speak  of  those 
of  the  prelates  and  clergy  who  refused  the  new  oath,  and 
were  in  consequence  ejected,  as  forming  the  true  Church 
of  England,  while  he  looked  upon  the  rest  who  remained 
in  possession  of  their  benefices,  or  were  appointed  to 
those  vacated  by  the  non-jurors,  as  forming  an  apostate 
and  rebellious  Church.  And,  under  the  influence  of  the 
same  feelings,  he  was  also  induced  to  take  steps  which 
no  friend  to  his  memory  can  justify  or  approve,  for  lay- 
ing the  foundation  of  a  permanent  schism  in  the  Church 
of  England. 

The  first  measure  which  he  took  for  this  purpose  was 
the  formal  consignment  of  his  archiepiscopal  powers,  on 
his  retiring  from  the  see,  to  Dr.  Lloyd,  the  deprived 
Bishop  of  Norwich. 

The  instrument,  by  which  he  appointed  Bishop  Lloyd 
his  vicar  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters,  is  dated  from  hig 
"hired  house,"  at  Fresingfield,  February  9th,  1691, 
rather  more  than  half  a  year  after  his  departure  from 
Lambeth.  He  styles  himself  in  it  ••  a  humble  minister 
of  the  metropolitan  Church  of  Canterbury."  He  states 
that,  having  been  driven  by  a  lay  force  from  the  house  of 
Lambeth,  and  not  finding  in  the  neighbouring  city  a 
place  where  he  could  conveniently  abide,  he  had  retired 
afar  off,  seeking  where,  in  his  old  age,  he  might  rest  his 
weary  head :  and,  as  there  remained  many  affairs  of 
great  moment  to  be  transacted  in  the  Church,  which 
could  be  most  conveniently  attended  to  by  one  resident 
in  London  or  its  vicinity,  he  therefore  appoints  him 
(Bishop  Lloyd)  his  vicar,  and  commits  to  him  all  the 
authority  belonging  to  his  place  and  pontifical  or  archie- 
piscopal office.  The  instrument  proceeds  "  whomsoever 
you,  my  brother,  as  occasion  may  require,  shall  take  and 
adjoin  to  yourself,  shall  choose  and  approve,  confirm  and 
appoint,  all  those,  as  far  as  of  right  I  can,  I  in  like 
manner  take  and  adjoin,  choose  and  approve,  confirm 


SANCROFT.  mt 

and  appoint.  In  a  word,  whatsoever  you  in  matters  of 
this  kind  may  do,  or  think  proper  to  be  done,  of  what- 
ever magnitude  or  description  it  may  be,  you  are  confi- 
dently to  impute  to  me." 

The  instrument  is  curious,  as  showing  the  state  of  the 
archbishop's  feeling  at  the  time,  and  the  firmness  with 
which  he  maintained  the  principles  he  had  imbibed. 
Bishop  Lloyd  continued  to  act  under  this  commission 
till  the  day  of  his  death,  but  with  so  much  caution  and 
prudence,  as  to  give  as  little  umbrage  as  possible  to  the 
bishops  who  were  in  possession  of  the  sees. 

A  second  measure,  which  he  took,  or  at  least  in  which 
he  concurred,  still  less  justifiable,  was  the  providing  for 
a  regular  succession  of  nonjuring  prelates  and  ministers. 
We  derive  our  principal  information  on  this  subject 
from  the  author  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Kettle  well,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  nonjurors.  It  is  stated  that  at  some 
period  within  the  two  or  three  first  years  after  the 
Revolution,  probably  in  the  year  1691  or  1692,  the 
exiled  king  ordered  a  list  of  nonjuring  clergy  to  be 
sent  over  to  him ;  a  list  was  accordingly  made  out,  as 
perfect  as  could  be  procured  in  the  existing  state  of 
things,  considering  the  unwillingness  which,  for  obvious 
reasons,  many  must  have  felt  to  have  their  names  to 
a  pear  in  such  a  list.  Out  of  the  number  whose 
names  were  thus  sent  over,  it  is  related  that,  at  the 
request  of  the  nonjuring  bishops.  King  James  nominated 
two  for  the  continuance  of  the  episcopal  succession,  the 
one  to  derive  his  spiritual  functions  and  authority  from 
Archbishop  Sancroft,  the  other  from  Bishop  Lloyd,  of 
Norwich,  the  eldest  suffragan  bishop.  The  two  ap- 
pointed were  Dr.  George  Hickes  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Wagstaffe:  the  former  was  consecrated  by  the  title  of 
Suffragan  of  Thetford,  the  latter  by  that  of  Sufiragan  of 
Ipswich.  The  archbishop  died  before  their  consecration, 
and  his  archiepiscopal  functions  were  performed  on  the 


308  SANCROFT. 

occasion  by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  assisted  by  the  other 
nonjuring  bishops. 

His  death  occurred  on  the  24th  November,  1693. 
The  piety  of  his  last  moments  was  in  keeping  with  his 
whole  life.  Mr.  Needham  one  of  his  chaplains  men- 
tions a  few  particulars  relating  to  his  habits,  which  are 
given  as  illustrative  of  the  manners  of  that  age.  "  He 
was,"  he  states,  "  the  most  pious  humble  good  Christian 
I  ever  knew  in  all  my  life.  His  hours  for  chapel  were 
at  six  in  the  morning,  twelve  before  dinner,  three  in  the 
afternoon,  and  nine  at  night,  at  which  times  he  was  con- 
stantly present,  and  always  dressed.  His  usual  diet, 
when  it  was  not  fast  day,  was  two  small  dishes  of 
coffee,  and  a  pipe  of  tobacco,  for  breakfast;  at  noon, 
chicken,  or  mutton;  at  night,  a  glass  of  mum,  and  a 
bit  of  bread,  if  anything." 

•  Bancroft,  though  a  learned  and  laborious  scholar,  pub- 
lished but  little.  His  writings  are : — Three  Sermons, 
published  at  different  times,  and  reprinted  together  in 
1694,  8vo.  His  few  other  publications  consist  of  the 
Latin  Dialogue  already  mentioned,  entitled  Fur  Prsedes- 
tinatus,  sive,  Dialogismus  inter  quendum  Ordinis  Prae- 
dicantium  Calvinistam  et  Furem  ad  Laqueum  damnatum 
Habitus,  &c.,  1651,  12mo,  containing  an  attack  upon 
Calvinism ;  Modern  Politics,  taken  from  Machiavel,  Borgia, 
and  other  modern  Authors,  by  an  Eye-witness,  1653, 
12mo  ;  A  Preface  to  Bishop  Andrewes'  Defence  of  the 
Vulgar  Translation  of  the  Bible,  of  which  Sancroft  was 
the  editor.  In  1757,  Nineteen  Familiar  Letters  of  his 
to  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Henry  North,  of  Milden-hall, 
Bart.,  and  which  were  found  among  the  papers  of  that 
gentleman,  were  published  in  8vo.  His  numerous  col- 
lections in  MSS.  were  purchased  some  years  after  his 
death  by  Bishop  Tanner,  and  presented  to  the  Bodleian 
Library. — D'oyley.    Chetmside. 


SANDERS.  309 


SANDERS,    NICHOLAS. 


Nicholas  Sanders,  (see  Life  of  Jewell.)  Of  this  person 
the  following  account  is  given  by  Jeremy  Collier.  He 
was  born  in  Surrey,  and  educated  in  New  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  was  king's  professor  of  canon-law.  When 
the  times  turned  against  his  persuasion,  he  retired  to 
Rome,  where  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  commenced 
doctor  of  divinity.  He  attended  Cardinal  Hosius  to 
the  Council  of  Trent.  And  here  by  disputing  and 
making  speeches,  he  raised  himself  a  considerable  cha- 
racter. At  last  he  was  sent  Nuncio  into  Ireland,  which 
was  looked  on  as  a  hazardous  undertaking.  And  so  it 
proved ;  for  upon  the  miscarrying  of  his  treasonable 
practices,  he  was  forced  to  abscond  in  the  woods  and 
bogs,  where  he  perished  with  hunger.  This  Sanders 
was  a  desperate  rebel ;  his  business  in  Ireland,  as  Rish- 
ton,  who  published  his  history,  confesses,  was  to  raise 
the  natives  upon  the  government ;  or  to  speak  in  Rish- 
ton's  words,  to  comfort  the  afflicted  Catholics  who  had 
taken  the  field  in  defence  of  their  religion.  Cambden 
reports,  that  his  pormanteau,  found  about  him  when 
dead,  was  stuffed  with  letters  and  harangues  to  animate 
the  Irish  in  their  revolt.  And  here,  amongst  other 
things,  he  gave  them  great  expectations  of  succours  from 
the  pope  and  the  King  of  Spain. 

His  death  occurred  in  1583.  He  was  the  author  of: 
"  De  Origine  ac  Progressu  Schismatis  Anglicani,  Lib. 
III.,"  8vo,  which  was  published  from  his  manuscript, 
in  1585,  at  Cologne,  and  was  frequently  reprinted  in 
Catholic  countries.  The  manner  in  which  it  is  written, 
however,  justifies  the  severe  remark  of  Bayle,  that  it 
discovers  "  a  great  deal  of  passion  and  very  little  accuracy, 
two  qualities  which  generally  attend  each  other."  Bishop 
Burnet  has  noticed  a  vast  number  of  his  errors  and 
misstatements  towards  the  close  of  the  first  and  second 


310  SANDERSON. 

parts  of  his  "History  of  the  Reformation."  Sanders 
also  wrote  a  treatise,  entitled  "  Be  Clave  David,  seu 
Regno  Christi,"  published  in  1588,  &c.,"  "  De  Martyrio 
Quorundam  Tempore  Henrici  VIII.  et  Elizahethse,  4to, 
published  at  Cologne,  in  1610  ;  an  abusive  account  of 
"  The  Life  and  Manners  of  the  heretic,  Thomas  Cran- 
mer ;"  and  various  controversial  treatises  which  are  enu- 
merated in  Moreri.    Bayle. 


SANDEBSON,    ROBERT. 

Robert  Sanderson  was  born  at  Rotherham  in  York- 
shire, on  the  19th  of  September,  1587,  and  having  re- 
ceived his  primary  education  at  the  Grammar  School 
of  Rotherham,  he  proceeded  to  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
Here  he  w^as  distinguished  for  his  industry  as  well  as 
for  his  genius,  and  as  regards  religion  he  tells  us  in 
the  preface  to  his  Sermons,  1657,  "I  had  a  desire  I 
may  truly  say,  almost  from  my  very  childhood,  to  under- 
stand as  much  as  it  was  possible  for  me,  the  bottom  of 
our  religion  ;  and  particularly  as  it  stood  in  relation  both 
to  the  Papists,  and  (as  they  were  then  styled)  Puritans ; 
to  inform  myself  rightly,  wherein  consisted  the  true 
differences  between  them  and  the  Church  of  England, 
together  with  the  grounds  of  those  differences  :  for  I 
could  even  then  observe  (which  was  no  hard  matter  to 
do),  that  the  most  of  mankind  took  up  their  religion 
upon  trust,  as  custom  or  education  framed  them  rather 
than  choice." 

At  the  university  he  generally  devoted  eleven  hours  a 
day  to  study ;  by  which  industry  he  was  enabled  at  an 
early  period  of  life  to  go  through  the  whole  course  of 
philosophy,  and  to  obtain  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
all  the  classical  authors.  From  most  of  these  he  made 
large  extracts ;  and  he  also  drew  up  indexes  to  them 
for  his  private  use,  either  in  a  kind  of  Journal,  or  at 


SANDERSON.  311 

the  beginning  and  end  of  each  book.  The  same  assi- 
duity he  continued  to  practise  during  the  whole  of  his 
life,  not  only  avoiding,  but  perfectly  hating  idleness,  and 
earnestly  advising  others  to  "be  always  furnished  with 
somewhat  to  do,  as  the  best  way  to  innocence  and  plea- 
sure." In  ]  G06,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  his  college ; 
and  in  the  following  year  he  proceeded  M.A.  In  1608, 
he  was  chosen  reader  of  logic ;  and  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  that  appointment  with  such  ability,  that  he 
was  rechosen  to  it  during  the  succeeding  year.  He 
also  distinguished  himself  greatly  in  the  capacity  of 
college-tutor.  In  1611,  he  was  admitted  to  holy  orders. 
Two  years  after  he  was  chosen  sub-rector  of  Lincoln 
College  ;  and  he  filled  the  same  office  in  1614  and  1616. 
In  1615,  he  published  his  lectures  on  logic,  under  the 
title  of  Logicse  Artis  Compendium,  8vo.  In  1617,  he 
took  the  degree  of  B.D. ;  and  in  1618,  he  was  presented 
to  the  Rectory  of  Wibberton,  in  Lincolnshire  :  this 
living  however,  he  resigned  in  the  following  year,  on 
account  of  the  unhealthiness  of  the  situation ;  and  about 
the  same  time  he  was  collated  to  the  Rectory  of  Boothby 
Pannell,  in  the  same  county. 

Here,  observes  Isaac  Walton,  in  his  quaint  and  plea- 
sant style,  he  was  so  happy  as  to  obtain  Anne,  the 
daughter  of  Henry  Nelson,  bachelor  in  divinity,  then 
Rector  of  Haugham,  in  the  county  of  Lincoln  (a  man  of 
noted  worth  and  learning.)  And  the  giver  of  all  good 
things  was  so  good  to  him,  as  to  give  him  such  a  wife  as 
was  suitable  to  his  own  desires ;  a  wife,  that  made  his 
life  happy  by  being  always  content  when  he  was  cheer- 
ful ;  that  was  always  cheerful  when  he  was  content ;  that 
divided  her  joys  with  him,  and  abated  of  his  sorrow,  by 
bearing  a  part  of  that  burden ;  a  wife,  that  demonstrated 
her  affection  by  a  cheerful  obedience  to  all  his  desires, 
during  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  at  his  death 
too  ;  for  she  outlived  him. 

And  in  this-  Boothby  Pannel  he  either  found  or  made 


312  SANDERSON. 

his  parishioners  peaceable,  and  complying  with  him  in 
the  constant,  decent,  and  regular  service  of  God.  And 
thus  his  parish,  his  patron  and  he,  lived  together  in  a 
religious  love,  and  a  contented  quietness  :  he  not  troub- 
ling their  thoughts  by  preaching  high  and  useless  no- 
tions, but  such,  and  only  such  plain  truths  as  were 
necessary  to  be  known,  believed,  and  practised  in  order 
to  the  honour  of  God  and  their  own  salvation.  And 
their  assent  to  what  he  taught  was  testified  by  such  a 
conformity  to  his  doctrine,  as  declared  they  believed  and 
loved  him.  For  it  may  be  noted  he  would  often  say, 
"  That  without  the  last,  the  most  evident  truths  (heard 
as  from  an  enemy,  or  an  evil  liver)  either  are  not,  (or  are 
at  least  the  less)  effectual ;  and  usually  rather  harden, 
than  convince  the  hearer." 

And  this  excellent  man,  did  not  think  his  duty  dis- 
charged by  only  reading  the  Church-prayers,  catechizing, 
preaching,  and  administering  the  sacraments  seasonably ; 
but  thought  (if  the  law,  or  the  canons  may  seem  to 
enjoin  no  more,  yet)  that  God  would  require  more  than 
the  defective  law  of  man's  making,  can  or  does  enjoin ; 
even  the  performance  of  that  inward  law,  which  Al- 
mighty God  hath  imprinted  in  the  conscience  of  all 
-■  good  Christians,  and  inclines  those  whom  he  loves  to 
perform.  He  considering  this,  did  therefore  become  a 
law  to  himself,  practising  not  only  what  the  law  enjoins, 
but  what  his  conscience  told  him  was  his  duty,  in 
reconciling  differences,  and  preventing  law-suits,  both 
in  his  parish  and  in  the  neighbourhood.  To  which  may 
be  added  his  often  visiting  sick  and  disconsolate  families, 
persuading  them  to  patience,  and  raising  them  from 
dejection  by  his  advice  and  cheerful  discourse,  and  by 
adding  his  own  alms,  if  there  were  any  so  poor  as  to 
need  it;  considering  how  acceptable  it  is  to  Almighty 
God,  when  we  do  as  we  are  advised  by  St.  Paul,  (Gal.  vi. 
2)  lieljp  to  hear  one  another's  burthen,  either  of  sorrow  or 
want :  and  what  a  comfort  it  will  be,  when  the  searcher 


SANDEESON.  313 

of  all  hearts  shall  call  us  to  a  strict  account  as  well  for 
that  evil  we  have  done,  as  the  good  we  have  omitted; 
to  remember  we  have  comforted  and  been  helpful  to  a 
dejected  or  distressed  family. 

Soon  after  he  was  made  a  prebendary  of  the  Collegiate 
Church  of  Southwell.  In  16Q5,  he  was  chosen  one  of 
the  clerks  in  Convocation  for  the  Diocese  of  Lincoln ; 
as  he  was  also  in  all  the  subsequent  Convocations 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  In  1629,  he  was  in- 
stalled into  a  prebend  in  the  Cathedral  of  Lincoln.  In 
1631,  at  the  recommendation  of  Laud,  then  Bishop  of 
London,  the  king  appointed  him  one  of  his  chaplains 
in  ordinary.  In  1633,  he  was  presented  to  the  Eectory 
of  Muston,  in  Leicestershire,  which  he  held  for  eight 
years. 

At  the  time  of  his  being  first  appointed  a  proctor  to 
Convocation,  the  vehemence  with  which  Calvinistic  pecu- 
liarities were  forced  upon  the  public  induced  Sanderson 
as  well  as  others  to  examine  the  subject ;  and  it  was 
about  the  year  1625,  that  he  drew  up  for  his  own  satis- 
faction, such  a  scheme  (he  called  it  Pax  EcclesicB)  as 
then  gave  himself,  and  has  since  given  others  such 
satisfaction,  that  it  still  remains  to  be  of  great  esti- 
mation. 

"  When  I  began,"says  he, "  to  set  myself  to  the  study  of 
divinity  as  my  proper  business,  which  was  after  I  had  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  being  then  nearly  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  the  first  thing  I  thought  fit  for  me  do,  was 
to  consider  well  of  the  articles  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  I  had  formerly  read  over,  twice,  or  thrice,  and 
whereunto  I  had  subscribed.  And  because  I  had  then 
met  with  some  Puritanical  pamphlets  written  against 
the  liturgy  and  ceremonies,  although  most  of  the  argu- 
ments therein  are  such  as  needed  no  great  skill  to  give 
satisfactory  answers  unto,  yet  for  my  fuller  satisfaction 
(the  questions  being  de  rebus  agendis,  and  so  the  more 
suitable  to  my  proper  inclination)  I  read  over,  with  great 

VOL.  VIII.  B  E 


314  SANDERSON. 

diligence  and  no  less  delight,  that  excellent  piece  of 
learned  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  PoHty.  And  I  have 
great  cause  to  bless  God  for  it,  that  so  I  did,  not  only  for 
that  it  much  both  cleared  and  settled  my  judgment  for 
ever  after  in  many  very  weighty  points  (as  of  scandal, 
Christian  liberty,  obligation  of  laws,  obedience,  &c.) 
but  that  it  also  proved  (by  His  good  providence)  a  good 
preparative  to  me  (that  I  say  not  antidote)  for  the  reading 
of  Calvin's  Institutions  with  more  caution  than  perhaps 
otherwise  I  should  have  done.  For  that  book  was  com- 
mended to  me,  as  it  was  generally  to  all  young  scholars, 
in  those  times,  as  the  best  and  perfectest  system  of 
divinity,  and  fittest  to  be  laid  as  a  groundwork  in  the 
study  of  that  profession.  And  indeed,  being  so  prepared 
as  he  said,  my  expectation  was  not  at  all  deceived  in  the 
reading  of  those  Institutions.  I  found,  so  far  as  I  was  then 
able  to  judge,  the  method  exact,  the  expressions  clear, 
the  style  grave  and  unaffected  :  his  doctrine  for  the  most 
part  conform  to  St.  Augustine's  ;  in  a  word,  the  whole 
work,  very  elaborate,  and  useful  to  the  Churches  of  God 
in  a  good  measure ;  and  might  have  been,  I  verily  believe, 
much  more  useful,  if  the  honour  of  his  name  had  not 
given  so  much  reputation  to  his  very  errors.  I  must 
acknowledge  myself  to  have  reaped  great  benefit  by  the. 
reading  thereof.  But  as  for  the  questions  of  Election, 
Eeprobation,  Effectual  Grace,  Perseverance,  &c.,  I  took 
as  little  notice  of  the  two  first,  as  of  any  other  thing 
contained  in  the  book ;  both  because  I  was  always  afraid 
to  pry  much  into  those  secrets,  and  because  I  could  not 
certainly  inform  myself  from  his  own  writings,  whether 
he  were  a  Supralapsarian,  as  most  speak  him,  and  he 
seemeth  often  to  incline  much  that  way,  or  a  Sublapsa- 
rian,  as  sundry  passages  in  the  book  seem  to  import. 
But  giving  myself  mostly  still  to  the  study  of  moral 
divinity,  and  taking  most  other  things  upon  trust,  as 
they  were  in  a  manner  generally  taught,  both  in  the 
schools  and  pulpits  in  both  universities,  I  did  for  many 


SANDERSON.  315 

years  together  acquiesce,  without  troubling  myself  any 
further  about  them,  in  the  more  commonly  received 
opinions  concerning  both  these  two,  and  the  other  points 
depending  thereuj)on :  yet  in  the  Sublapsarian  way  ever, 
(which  seemed  to  me  of  the  two  the  more  moderate,) 
rational  and  agreeable  to  the  goodness  and  justice  of 
God ;  for  the  rigid  Supralapsarian  doctrine  could  never 
find  any  entertainment  in  my  thoughts,  from  first  to 
last. 

"  But  in  1625,  a  parliament  being  called,  wherein  I 
was  chosen  one  of  the  clerks  o-f  the  Convocation  for  the 
Diocese  of  Lincoln,  during  the  continnance  of  that  par- 
liament, which  was  about  four  months,  as  I  remember, 
there  was  some  expectation  that  those  Arminian  points, 
the  only  questions  almost  in  agitation  at  that  time, 
should  have  been  debated  by  the  clergy  in  the  Convo- 
cation. Which  occasioned  me,  as  it  did  sundry  others, 
being  then  at  some  leisure,  to  endeavour  by  study  and 
conference  to  inform  myself,  as  thoroughly  and  exactly 
in  the  state  of  those  controversies,  as  I  could  have  oppor- 
tunity, and  my  wit  could  serve  me  for  it.  In  order 
whereunto,  I  made  it  my  first  business  to  take  a  survey 
of  the  several  different  opinions  concerning  the  ordering 
of  God's  decrees,  as  to  the  salvation  or  damnation  of 
men :  not  as  they  are  supposed  to  be  really  in  mente 
divind,  (for  all  His  decrees  are  eternal,  and  therefore 
co-eternal,  and  therefore  no  priority  or  posteriority  among 
them)  but  quoad  nostrum  intelligendi  modum,  because  we 
cannot  conceive  or  speak  of  the  things  of  God,  but  in 
a  way  suitable  to  our  own  finite  condition  and  under- 
standing; even  as  God  Himself  hath  been  pleased  to 
reveal  Himself  to  us  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  by  the 
like  suitable  condescensions  and  accommodations.  Which 
opinions,  the  better  to  represent  their  differences  to  the 
eye  uno  quasi  intuitu,  for  their  more  easy  conveying  to 
the  understanding  by  that  means,  and  the  avoiding  of 
confusion  and  tedious  discoursings,  I  reduced  into  five 


316  SANDERSON. 

schemes  or  tables,  much  after  the  manner  as  I  had 
used  to  draw  pedigrees,  (a  thing  which  I  think  you 
know  I  have  very  much  fancied,  as  to  me  of  all  others 
the  most  delightful  recreation);  of  which  scheme,  some 
special  friends  to  whom  I  shewed  them,  desired  copies ; 
who,  as  it  seemeth,  valuing  them  more  than  I  did,  (for 
divers  men  have  copies  of  them,  as  I  hear,  but  I  do  not 
know  that  I  have  any  such  myself)  communicated  them 
farther,  and  so  they  are  come  into  many  hands.  These 
are  they  which  Dr.  Reynolds,  in  his  Epistle  prefixed  to 
Master  Barlee's  Correptory  Correction,  had  taken  notice 
of.  Having  all  these  schemes  before  my  eyes  at  once, 
so  as  I  might  with  ease  compare  them  one  with  another, 
and  having  considered  of  the  conveniences  and  incon- 
veniences of  each,  as  well  as  I  could,  I  soon  discerned 
a  necessity  of  quitting  the  Sublapsarian  way,  of  which 
I  had  a  better  liking  before,  as  well  as  the  Supralap- 
sarian,  which  I  could  never  fancy."  Dr.  Hammond's 
Pacific  Discourse  of  God's  Grace  and  Decrees,  a.  d. 
1660.  Hammond's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  669.  It  may  be 
worth  observing  that  this  collection  of  schemes  or  tables 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  tract  published  by 
Isaac  Walton  under  the  title  Pax  Ecclesice,  which  Wal- 
ton attributes  to  the  year  1625.  In  that  tract  it  is 
plain,  that  he  still  retains  the  Sublapsarian  opinion  : 
and  there  are  other  reasons  to  prove  that  the  tracts 
are  not  the  same. 

In  1636,  when  the  court  was  entertained  at  Oxford, 
Sanderson  was  created  D.D.  In  1642,  the  king  ap- 
pointed him  regius  professor  of  divinity  at  Oxford,  and 
canon  of  Christ  Church ;  but  he  was  prevented  by  the 
civil  wars  from  entering  on  his  professorship  till  four 
years  afterwards,  and  even  then  he  held  it  undisturbed 
only  little  more  than  twelve  months.  When,  in  1643, 
the  parliament  summoned  the  famous  Assembly  of 
Divines  to  meet  at  Westminster,  for  the  purpose  of 
deliberating  on  ecclesiastical  affairs,  Dr.  Sanderson  was 


SANDERSON.  317 

nominated  one  of  that  body.  However,  he  dedined 
taking  his  seat  amongst  them ;  and  afterwards  he  re- 
fused to  take,  at  first  the  Covenant,  and  then  the 
Engagement.  The  consequence  of  his  refusal  to  take 
the  Covenant,  was  the  sequestration  of  his  Rectory  of 
Boothby  Pannel,  in  1644;  but,  so  great  was  his  repu- 
tation for  piety  and  learning,  that  he  was  not  deprived 
of  it.  He  had  the  principal  share  in  drawing  up  "  The 
Reasons  of  the  University  of  Oxford  against  the  solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  the  negative  Oath,  and  the  Ordi- 
nances concerning  Discipline  and  Worship;"  and  when 
the  parliament  had  sent  proposals  to  the  king  for  a  peace 
in  Church  and  state,  his  majesty  desired  that  Dr. 
Sanderson,  with  the  Doctors  Hammond,  Sheldon,  and 
Morley,  should  attend  him,  and  give  him  their  advice  how 
far  he  might  with  a  good  conscience  comply  with  them. 
This  request  was  at  that  time  rejected;  but  in  1647, 
and  1648,  when  his  majesty  w^as  at  Hampton  Court,  and 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  it  was  complied  with,  and  Dr.  San- 
derson both  preached  before  the  king,  and  had  many 
public  and  private  conferences  with  him,  from  which  his 
majesty  declared  that  he  received  the  greatest  satisfac- 
tion. While  he  was  at  Hampton  Court,  by  the  king's 
desire  he  drew  up  a  treatise,  containing  his  sentiments 
on  the  proposal  which  parliament  had  made  for  the 
abolition  of  episcopal  government  as  inconsistent  with 
monarchy.  What  he  wrote  upon  this  subject  was 
published  in  1661,  under  the  title  of  Episcopacy,  as 
established  by  Law  in  England,  not  prejudicial  to  regal 
Power,  8vo.  In  1648,  Dr.  Sanderson,  on  account  of  his 
adherence  to  the  royal  cause,  was  ejected  from  his  pro- 
fessorship and  canonry  at  Oxford  by  the  parliamentary 
visitors,  and  withdrew  to  his  living  of  Boothby  Pannell ; 
whence  he  was  soon  after  carried  prisoner  by  the  parha- 
mentary  party  to  Lincoln,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
exchanged  for  Mr.  Clarke,  a  Puritan  divine  and  minister 
of  Allington,  who  had  been  made  prisoner  by  the  king's 
E  E  3 


318  SANDERSON. 

party.  This  exchange  having  been  agreed  upon,  Dr. 
Sanderson  was  released  upon  articles,  by  which  it  was 
engaged  that  he  should  be  restored  to  his  living,  and 
that  he  should  remain  there  undisturbed. 

Here,  observes  Walton,  he  hoped  to  have  enjoyed  him- 
self in  a  poor,  yet  in  a  quiet  and  desired  ^J^ivacy ;  but 
it  proved  otherwise.  For  all  corners  of  the  nation  were 
filled  with  Covenanters,  confusion,  committee-men,  and 
soldiers,  defacing  monuments,  breaking  painted  glass 
windows,  and  serving  each  other  to  their  several  ends, 
of  revenge,  or  power,  or  profit;  and  these  committee- 
men and  soldiers  were  most  of  them  so  possessed  with 
this  covenant  that  they  became  like  those  that  were 
infected  with  that  dreadful  plague  of  Athens ;  the  plague 
of  which  plague  was,  that  they  by  it  became  maliciously 
restless  to  get  into  company,  and  to  joy  (so  the  historian 
saith)  when  they  had  infected  others,  even  those  of  their 
most  beloved  or  nearest  friends  or  relations ;  and  so 
though  there  might  be  some  of  these  covenanters  that 
were  beguiled,  and  meant  well ;  yet  such  were  the 
generality  of  them,  and  temper  of  the  times,  that  you 
may  be  sure  Dr.  Sanderson,  who  though  quiet  and 
harmless,  yet  was  an  eminent  dissenter  from  them, 
could  therefore  not  live  peaceably  ;  not  did  he.  For  the 
soldiers  would  appear,  and  visibly  oppose  and  disturb 
him  in  the  church  when  he  read  prayers,  some  of  them 
pretending  to  advise  him  how  God  was  to  be  served  more 
acceptably ;  which  he  not  approving,  but  continuing 
to  observe  order  and  decent  behaviour  in  reading  the 
Church  service,  they  forced  his  book  from  him,  and  tore 
it,  expecting  extemporary  prayers. 

At  this  time  he  was  advised  by  a  parliament  man  of 
power  and  note,  that  loved  and  valued  him  much,  not 
to  be  strict  in  reading  all  the  Common  Prayer,  but  to 
make  some  little  variation,  especially  if  the  soldiers  came 
to  watch  him ;  for  if  he  did,  it  might  not  be  in  the 
power  of  him  and  his  other  friends  to  secure  him  from 


SANDERSON.  319 

taking  the  covenant,  or  sequestration :  for  which  reasons 
he  did  vary  somewhat  from  the  strict  rules  of  the  rubric. 

Of  the  Prayer  Book  he  told  his  friend  Isaac  Walton, 
"  That  the  Holy  Ghost  seemed  to  assist  the  composers ; 
and,  that  the  effect  of  a  constant  use  of  it  would  be, 
to  melt  and  form  the  soul  into  holy  thoughts  and 
desires  :  and  beget  habits  of  devotions."  This  he  said  : 
and  "  that  the  Collects  were  the  most  passionate,  proper, 
and  most  elegant  comprehensive  expressions  that  any 
language  ever  afforded;  and  that  there  was  in  them 
such  piety,  and  that,  so  interwoven  with  instructions, 
that  they  taught  us  to  know  the  power,  the  wisdom,  the 
majesty,  and  mercy  of  God,  and  much  of  our  duty  both 
to  Him  and  our  neighbour;  and  that  a  congregation 
behaving  themselves  reverently,  and  putting  up  to  God 
these  joint  and  known  desires  for  pardon  of  sins,  and 
their  praises  for  mercies  received,  could  not  but  be  more 
pleasing  to  God,  than  those  raw  unpremeditated  expres- 
sions which  many  understood  not,  and  so  to  which  many 
of  the  hearers  could  not  say  Amen." 

For  some  years  before  the  Restoration  the  hand  of 
poverty  pressed  heavily  upon  Dr.  Sanderson,  but  he 
bo»e  all  his  afflictions  with  unrepining  resignation,  and 
continued  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  suffering  Church 
with  vigour  and  courage.  He  hazarded  his  safety,  says 
Walton,  by  writing  the  large  and  bold  preface,  now  ex- 
tant, before  his  Sermons,  first  printed  in  the  dangerous 
year,  1655.  With  respect  to  this  admirable  treatise,  it 
is  to  be  wished  that  it  were  printed  as  a  tract  and  cir- 
culated, as  being  adapted  to  the  present  age  as  much  as 
to  that  for  the  benefit  of  which  it  was  especially  written. 
One  or  two  extracts  we  shall  make.  Having  declared 
that  he  preached  as  much  against  Popery  as  against 
Protestantism,  he  remarks  of  the  Puritans,  "  that  they 
preach  against  Popery,  I  not  at  all  mishke  ;  only  I  could 
wish  that  these  two  cautions  were  better  observed,  than 
(as  far  as  I  can  make  conjecture  of  the  rest,  by  the  pro- 


320  SANDERSON. 

portion  of  what  hath  come  to  my  knowledge),  I  fear  they 
usually  are,  by  the  more  zealous  of  that  party,  viz.  1. 
That  they  do  not  through  ignorance,  prejudice,  or  pre- 
cipitancy, call  that  Popery,  which  is  not;  and  then, 
under  that  name  and  notion,  preach  against  it.  2.  That 
they  would  do  it  with  the  less  noise,  and  more  weight. 
It  is  not  a  business  merely  of  the  lungs,  but  requireth 
sinews  too ;  or,  to  use  their  own  metaphor,  let  them  not 
think  that  casting  of  squibs  will  do  the  deed,  or  charging 
with  powder  alone  :  that  will  give  a  crack  indeed,  and 
raise  a  smoke ;  but  unless  they  have  bullet  as  well  as 
powder  it  will  do  little  execution. " 

In  another  place,  alluding  to  the  charge  brought 
against  the  Liturgy  that  the  ceremonies  are  Popish,  he 
says  of  the  Puritans  :  "  their  opinion  is,  that  the  things 
enjoined  are  popish  and  superstitious,  and  consequently 
unlawful  to  be  used,  and  this  they  render  as  the  reason 
of  their  nonconformity.  And  the  reason  were  certainly 
good,  if  the  opinion  were  true.  For  the  popishness  first, 
unless  we  should  sue  out  a  writ  de  finihus  regendis,  it 
will  be  hard  to  find  out  a  way  how  to  bring  this  contro- 
versy to  an  issue,  much  less  to  an  end,  the  term  hath 
been  so  strangely  extended,  and  the  limits  thereof  (if  yet 
it  have  any)  so  uncertain.  If  they  would  be  entreated  to 
set  bounds  to  what  they  mean  by  Popish  and  Popery,  by 
giving  us  a  certain  definition  of  it,  we  should  the  sooner 
either  come  to  some  agreement,  or  at  least  understand 
ourselves  and  one  another  the  better,  wherein  and  how 
far  we  disagreed.  In  the  meantime  it  is  to  me  a  won- 
der, that  if  reason  would  not  heretofore,  yet  the  sad 
experience  of  the  ill  consequents  so  visible  of  late  time, 
should  not  have  taught  them  all  this  while  to  consider 
what  infinite  advantage  they  give  to  the  Eomish  party  to 
work  upon  weak  and  wavering  souls,  by  damning  so 
many  things  under  the  name  of  Popery,  which  may  to 
their  understandings  be  sufficiently  evidenced,  some  to 
have  been  used  by  the  ancient  Christians  long  before 


SANDERSON.  321 

popery  was  hatched,  or  but  in  the  egg,  and  all  to  have 
nothing  of  superstition  or  Popery  in  them,  unless  every 
thing  that  is  used  in  the  Church  of  Rome  become 
thereby  popish  and  superstitious.  Nor  V7hat  great  ad- 
vantage they  give  to  our  newer  sectaries  to  extend  the 
name  yet  farther :  who,  by  the  help  of  their  new  lights, 
can  discern  Popery,  not  only  in  the  ceremonies  formerly 
under  debate,  but  even  in  the  churches  and  pulpits 
wherein  they  used  to  call  the  people  together  to  hear 
them.  These  are  by  some  of  them  cried  down  as  popish, 
with  other  things  very  many  which  their  Presbyterian 
brethren  do  yet  both  allow  and  practise ;  though  how 
long  they  will  so  do  is  uncertain,  if  they  go  on  with  the 
work  of  reformation  they  have  begun,  with  as  quick 
dispatch  and  at  the  rate  they  have  done  these  last  two 
seven  years.  The  having  of  godfathers  at  baptism, 
churching  of  women,  prayers  at  the  burial  of  the  dead, 
children  asking  their  parent's  blessing,  &c.,  which  for- 
merly were  held  innocent,  are  now  by  very  many  thrown 
aside  as  rags  of  Popery.  Nay,  are  not  some  gone  so  far 
already  as  to  cast  into  the  same  heap,  not  only  the 
ancient  hymn  Gloria  Patri  (for  the  repeating  whereof 
alone  some  have  been  deprived  of  all  their  livelihoods) 
and  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  but  even  the  use  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  itself? — And  what  will  ye  do  in  the  end  thereof? 
And  what  would  ye  have  us  to  do  in  the  meantime, 
when  you  call  hard  upon  us  to  leave  our  Popery,  and  yet 
would  never  do  us  the  favour  to  let  us  know  what  it  is  ? 
It  were  good  therefore,  both  for  your  own  sakes  that  you 
may  not  rove  in  infinitum,  and  in  compassion  to  us,  that 
you  would  give  us  a  perfect  boundary  of  what  is  Popery 
now,  with  some  prognostication  or  ephemerides  annexed, 
(if  you  please,)  whereby  to  calculate  what  will  be  Popery 
seven  years  hence. 

"  But  to  be  serious,  and  not  to  indulge  myself  too  much 
merriment  in  so  sad  a  business,  I  believe  all  those  men 
will  be  found  much  mistaken,  who  either  measure  the 


322  SANDERSON. 

Protestant  religion  by  an  opposition  to  Popery,  or  account 
all  Popery  that  is  taught  or  practised  in  the  Church  of 
Eome.  Our  godly  forefathers  to  whom  (under  God)  we 
owe  the  purity  of  our  religion,  and  some  of  which  laid 
down  their  lives  for  the  defence  of  the  same,  were  sure  of 
another  mind,  if  we  may  from  what  they  did,  judge  what 
they  thought.  They  had  no  purpose  (nor  had  they  any 
warrant)  to  set  up  a  new  religion,  but  to  reform  the  old 
by  purging  it  from  those  innovations  which  in  tract  of 
time  (some  sooner,  some  later,)  had  mingled  with  it,  and 
corrupted  it  both  in  the  doctrine  and  worship.  Accord- 
ing to  this  purpose  they  produced,  without  constraint 
or  precipitancy,  freely  and  advisedly  as  in  peaceable 
times,  and  brought  their  intentions  to  a  happy  end ;  as 
by  the  result  thereof  contained  in  the  Articles  and 
Liturgy  of  our  Church,  and  the  prefaces  thereunto,  doth 
fully  appear.  From  hence  chiefly,  as  I  conceive,  we  are 
to  take  our  best  scantling  whereby  to  judge  what  is,  and 
what  is  not,  to  be  esteemed  Popery.  All  these  doctrines 
then,  held  by  the  modern  Church  of  Rome,  which  are 
either  contrary  to  the  written  word  of  God,  or  but  super- 
added thereunto  as  necessary  points  of  faith,  to  be  of  all 
Christians  believed  under  pain  of  damnation;  and  all 
those  superstitions  used  in  the  worship  of  God,  which 
either  are  unlawful  as  being  contrary  to  the  word,  or 
being  not  contrary,  and  therefore  arbitrary  and  indif- 
ferent, are  made  essentials,  and  imposed  as  necessary 
parts  of  worship :  these  are,  as  I  take  it,  the  things 
whereunto  the  name  of  Popery  doth  properly  and  pecu- 
liarly belong.  But  as  for  the  ceremonies  used  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  the  Church  of  England  at  the 
Reformation  thought  fit  to  retain,  not  as  essential  or 
necessary  parts  of  God's  service,  but  only  as  accidental 
and  mutable  circumstances  attending  the  same  for  order, 
comeliness,  and  edification's  sake ;  how  these  should 
deserve  the  name  of  popish,  I  so  little  understand,  that 
I  profess  I  do  not  yet  see  any  reason  why,  if  the  Church 


SANDERSON.  323 

had  then  thought  fit  to  have  retained  some  other  of  those 
which  were  then  laid  aside,  she  might  not  have  lawfully 
so  done,  or  why  the  things  so  retained  should  have  been 
accounted  popish.  The  plain  truth  is  this  :  The  Church 
of  England  meant  to  make  use  of  her  liberty,  and  the 
lawful  power  she  had  (as  all  the  Churches  of  Christ  have, 
or  ought  to  have)  of  ordering  ecclesiastical  affairs  here, 
yet  to  do  it  with  so  much  prudence  and  moderation,  that 
the  world  might  see  by  what  was  laid  aside,  that  she 
acknowledged  no  subjection  to  the  see  of  Rome ;  and  by 
what  was  retained,  that  she  did  not  recede  from  the 
Church  of  Rome  out  of  any  spirit  of  contradiction,  but 
as  necessitated  thereunto  for  the  maintenance  of  her 
just  liberty.  The  number  of  ceremonies  was  also  then 
very  great,  and  they  thereby  burdensome,  and  so  the 
number  thought  fit  to  be  lessened.  But  for  the  choice 
which  should  be  kept,  and  which  not,  that  was  wholly  in 
her  power,  and  at  her  discretion.  Whereof,  though  she 
were  not  bound  so  to  do,  yet  hath  she  given  a  clear  and 
satisfactory  account  in  one  of  the  prefaces  usually  pre- 
fixed before  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer." 

It  is  curious  to  observe  that  a  fact  continues  to  exist 
just  as  Sanderson  found  it  in  the  17th  century.  He 
says,  "  that  in  those  counties,  Lancashire  for  one,  where 
there  are  the  most  and  most  rigid  Presbyterians,  (mean- 
ing Puritans)  there  are  also  the  most  and  most  zealous 
Roman  Catholics." 

The  Restoration  found  Dr.  Sanderson  an  old  man. 
He  was  reinstated  in  his  professorship  and  canonry,  in 
August,  1560  ;  and,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  true 
friends  of  the  Church,  was  included  with  Sheldon,  Mor- 
ley,  and  others,  in  the  list  of  bishops  consecrated  in 
October  following. 

The  see  chosen  for  him  was  that  of  Lincoln.  He 
possessed  it  about  two  years  and  a  half;  a  short  time, 
yet  long  enough  to  enable  the  Church  to  appreciate  his 
public  labours,  and  the  diocese  to  taste  his  munificence. 


324  SANDERSON. 

A  principal  share  was  taken  by  him  in  the  additions 
and  alterations  made  in  the  Liturgy  by  the  Convocation 
of  1661  :  in  particular,  the  general  Preface  to  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  Book  is  of  his  composition.  He  augmented, 
at  his  own  cost,  several  poor  livings  in  his  diocese; 
repaired  the  palace  at  Buckden,  on  which  Bishop  Wil- 
liams had,  in  the  last  reign,  bestowed  a  princely  ex- 
pense, but  which  had  been  ruined  in  the  civil  war  ;  and, 
after  distinguishing  his  brief  tenure  of  the  episcopal 
office  by  some  farther  proofs  of  his  liberality,  he  expired, 
in  January,  1663,  without  having  made  any  provision 
for  his  family.  His  preparations  for  his  departure  out 
of  the  world  were  made  with  the  pious  serenity  to  be 
expected  from  the  previous  tenor  of  his  life.  The  day 
before  his  death  he  received  the  Church's  absolution  ; 
pulling  off  his  cap  at  the  performance  of  that  solemn 
service  in  order  that  the  hand  of  the  chaplain  employed 
in  it  might  rest  on  his  bare  head. 

Bishop  Sanderson  was  unquestionably  one  of  the 
ablest  of  our  English  divines.  "  That  staid  and  well 
weighed  man,"  it  was  said  by  his  contemporary  Ham- 
mond, "  conceives  all  things  deliberately,  dwells  upon, 
them  discreetly,  discerns  things  that  differ  exactly,  pass- 
eth  his  judgment  rationally,  and  expresses  it  aptly, 
clearly,  and  honestly."  A  profound  scholar,  a  judicious 
divine,  a  great  preacher,  a  matchless  casuist; — in  poverty 
and  oppression,  patient  and  courageous — in  prosperity 
and  high  station,  simple  and  self-denying — distinguished, 
in  every  variety  of  circumstances,  by  the  same  Christian 
bearing  and  unaffected  piety, — Sanderson  holds  an  emi- 
nent place  among  those  true  sons  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, whose  memory  she  cherishes  with  joy  and  thank- 
ness ;  and  he  probably  realized  the  hope,  often  expressed 
by  him,  that  "  he  should  die  without  an  enemy." 

The  principal  works  of  Bishop  Sanderson  are: — 1. 
"  Logicse  Artis  Compendium,"  8vo,  ]615.  2.  "  De  Jura- 
menti  Promissorii  Obligatione,  Prselectiones  VII.,"  8vo, 


SANDYS.  325 

1647.  The  translation  of  this  work,  made  by  King 
Charles  I.,  was  printed  in  8vo,  in  the  year  1655.  3. 
"  Censure  of  Mr.  Anthony  Ascham's  Book  of  the  Confu- 
sions and  Revolutions  of  Government,"  8vo,  1649.  As- 
cham  was  English  resident  at  Madrid,  in  the  time  of  the 
Rump  Parliament.  4.  "  Thirty-six  Sermons  :  ad  aulam, 
clerum,  magistratum,  populum,"  foL,  1658.  Of  the 
discourses  contained  in  this  invaluable  collection  of 
divinity,  several  had  before  appeared  separately,  and 
twelve  as  collected  into  a  4to  volume,  in  1632.  To  the 
eighth  edition,  printed  in  1689,  is  prefixed  the  interest- 
ing Life,  by  Walton.  5.  "  De  Obhgatione  Conscientiae 
Praelectiones,"  4to,  1661.  6.  "Episcopacy,  as  estab- 
lished by  law  in  England,  not  prejudicial  to  the  Regal 
Power,"  8vo,  1661.  7.  "  Preface  to  Ussher's  work  on 
The  Power  communicated  by  God  to  the  Prince,  and  the 
Obedience  required  of  the  Subject,"  4to,  1661.  8.  "Ar- 
ticles of  Visitation  and  Enquiry  concerning  Matters 
Ecclesiastical,"  4to,  1662.  9.  "Nine  Cases  of  Con- 
science Resolved."  Several  of  these  had  been  already 
published  at  different  times.  8vo.  1678.  10.  "  Bishop 
Sanderson's  Judgment  concerning  Submission  to  Usur- 
pers." Annexed,  with  other  tracts,  to  Walton's  Life  of  San- 
derson, 1678.  11.  "Discourse  of  the  Church,  &c.,  first, 
concerning  the  Visibility  of  the  True  Church ;  secondly, 
concerning  the  Church  of  Rome,"  1688.  This  tract  was 
published  by  Dr.  Ashton,  of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford, 
from  a  MS.  communicated  to  him  by  the  domestic  chap- 
lain who  attended  Bishop  Sanderson  on  his  death-bed. 

Dr.  Sanderson  is  mentioned  by  Brian  Walton  among 
those  learned  friends  who  assisted  him  in  his  Polygot 
Bible. — Works.    Isaac  Walton.    Cattermole. 


SANDYS,    OR    SANDES,    EDWIN. 

Edwin  Sandys,  or  Sandes,  descended  from  the  ancient 
yOl.  yiii.  f  f 


326  SANDYS. 

barons  of  Kendal,  was  born  near  Hawkshead,  in  Fur- 
ness  Fells,  in  1519.  He  received  his  primary  educa- 
tion most  probably  at  the  School  of  Furness  Abbey,  and 
in  1532  or  1533,  went  to  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  graduated  in  1539.  In  1547,  he  became 
Master  of  Catherine  Hall;  about  which  time  he  was 
also  Vicar  of  Haversham,  in  Buckinghamshire,  and  a 
Prebendary  of  Peterborough.  He  embraced  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation  and  married.  At  the  death 
of  Edward  VI.,  he  was  also  a  Prebendary  of  Carlisle 
and  Vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 
When  Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland,  after  the  death 
of  Edward  VI.,  was  in  arms  for  the  cause  of  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  he  marched  through  Cambridge  on  his  way  to 
attack  the  Princess  Mary.  He  persuaded  Dr.  Sandys 
to  maintain  Lady  Jane's  title  in  a  Sermon  before  the 
university.  Dr.  Sandys  did  not  hesitate  to  undertake  an 
office  which  would  have  laid  the  new  queen,  had  Lady 
Jane  succeeded,  under  obligations  to  him.  The  spe- 
culation, however,  failed  by  the  success  of  Mary,  and 
Dr.  Sandys  found  himself  in  prison  instead  of  being 
in  a  palace.  He  contrived  to  escape  and  arrived  at 
Antwerp,  in  1554.  Finding  that  he  was  not  in  safety 
at  Antwerp,  he  proceeded  to  Strasburg.  Here  he 
took  up  his  abode  for  the  present,  and  here  unques- 
tionably spent  the  most  gloomy  portion  of  his  life. 
His  own  health  was  at  this  time  deeply  injured ;  he 
fell  sick  of  a  flux  (the  usual  concomitant  of  hardships 
and  afflictions,)  which  continued  without  abatement  for 
nine  months  ;  his  only  child  died  of  the  plague ;  and 
his  beloved  wife,  who  had  found  means  to  follow  him 
about  a  year  after  his  flight  from  England,  expired  of 
consumption  in  his  arms.  In  addition  to  his  sor- 
rows, the  disputes  concerning  Church  discipline  broke 
out  among  the  English  exiles,  on  which  several  of  his 
friends  left  the  place.  After  his  wife's  death,  he  went 
to  Zurich,  where  he  was  entertained  by  Peter  Martyr, 


but,  his  biograplier  thinks,  the  time  did  not  permit  him 
to  receive  any  deep  tincture  either  as  to  doctrine  or  dis- 
cipHne  from  Geneva  or  its  neighbours.  Within  five 
weeks  the  news  of  Queen  Mary's  death  arrived ;  and 
after  being  joyfully  feasted  by  Bullinger,  and  the  other 
ministers  of  the  Swiss  Churches,  he  returned  to  Stras- 
burg,  where  he  preached ;  after  which  Grindal  and  he 
set  out  for  their  native  country  together,  and  arrived  in 
London  on  the  day  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  coronation. 

In  the  month  of  March  following,  the  queen  and  her 
council  appointed  him  one  of  the  nine  Protestant  divines 
who  were  to  hold  a  disputation  against  an  equal  number 
of  the  Popish  clergy,  before  both  houses  of  parliament 
at  Westminster.  He  was  also  one  of  the  commissioners 
who  were  selected  to  prepare  a  new  liturgy,  and  to  de- 
liberate on  other  matters  for  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.  On  the  21st  December,  1559,  he  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Worcester.  When,  about  the  year 
1565,  it  was  determined  that  a  new  translation  of  the 
Bible  (called  afterwards  Parker's,  or  the  Bishops'  Bible) 
should  be  made.  Dr.  Sandys,  on  account  of  his  great 
skill  in  the  original  languages,  was  one  of  the  bishops 
who  were  appointed  to  undertake  that  work,  and  he 
had  allotted  to  him  as  his  portion  the  first  and  second 
books  of  Kings,  and  the  first  and  second  books  of 
Chronicles. 

At  his  first  visitation  in  1560,  five  or  six  priests  were 
presented  to  him  for  living  in  a  state  of  concubinage, 
and  he  took  occasion,  on  that  account  to  deliver  in  his 
cathedral  a  sermon  shewing  the  necessity  of  permitting 
priests  to  marry.  In  1570,  on  the  translation  of  his 
friend  Grindal  to  York,  he  succeeded  him  in  the  see 
of  London,  from  which,  in  1576,  he  was  translated  to 
York,  on  the  removal  of  Grindal  to  Canterbury.  In 
1577,  Archbishop  Sandys  resolved  to  visit  the  whole  of 
his  province.  Such  a  general  visitation  he  was  induced 
to  make,  it  is  said,  in  consequence  of  the  complaints  of 


328  SANDYS. 

Dr.  Barnes,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  that  he  had  in  vain 
attempted  to  bring  the  clergy  of  his  diocese  to  an  abso- 
lute conformity,  owing  to  the  lax  government,  which  had 
been  exercised  over  them  by  his  predecessor ;  and  that 
his  province  abounded  in  Non-conformists,  whom  he 
could  not  reduce  to  the  established  orders  of  the  Church. 

He  had  much  trouble  with  Whittingham,  Dean  of 
Durham,  who  had,  in  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs,, 
obtained  the  preferment  without  having  been  ordained. 
The  archbishop  was  determined  to  enforce  the  discipline 
of  the  Church,  although  perhaps  he  had  as  little  regard 
to  the  necessity  of  episcopal  ordination  as  Whittingham. 
The  Archbishop  of  York  was  indeed  more  of  a  practical 
partizan  than  a  divine,  and  seems  chiefly  to  have  studied 
theology  as  necessary  to  his  worldly  advancement.  He 
was  in  his  heart  opposed  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  that  Church,  to  enforce  which,  in  order  that  he  might 
find  favour  with  the  government,  he  was  harsh  and 
severe.  When  first  he  came  from  abroad,  being  a  liberal, 
he  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  use  of  clerical  habits, 
but  when  he  was  a  bishop  he  was  a  strict  enforcer  oi 
conformity  upon  the  Puritans.  His  real  sentiments 
came  out  in  his  last  will: — "  I  am  persuaded,"  says  he, 
"  that  the  rites  and  ceremonies  by  political  institution 
appointed  in  the  Church,  are  not  ungodly  nor  unlawful, 
but  may  for  order  and  obedience  sake  be  used  by  a  good 
Christian — but  I  am  now,  and  ever  have  been  persuaded, 
that  some  of  these  rites  and  ceremonies  are  not  expedient 
for  this  Church  now ;  but,  that  in  the  Church  reformed, 
and  in  all  this  time  of  the  gospel,  they  may  better  be 
disused  by  little  and  little,  than  more  and  more  urged." 

He  has  the  bad  preeminence  of  being  the  first  English 
bishop  who,  by  his  prudence  or  parsimony,  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  fortune  in  his  family,  which  has  justified 
their  subsequent  advancement  to  a  peerage.  With  his 
father's  savings,  the  manor  of  Ombersley,  in  Worcester- 
shire, was  purchased  by  Sir  Samuel  Sandys,  the  eldest 


SXKAVIA.  B$i0 

son,  whose  descendants,  since  ennobled  by  the  family 
name,  still  remain  in  possession  of  that  fair  and  ample 
domain. 

His  life  was  rendered  a  scene  of  perpetual  contention 
and  warfare,  in  which  he  had  numerous  enemies  by  whom 
many  attempts  were  made  to  ruin  his  reputation  and 
interest.  One  scheme  which  was  planned  with  this 
view  was  of  a  most  atrocious  nature.  He  quarrelled 
alike  with  Papists  and  Protestants,  with  the  clergy  who 
were  under  him,  and  with  his  brethren  on  the  episcopal 
bench.  He  seldom  kept  house  at  York  or  Southwark, 
but  lived  in  obscure  manor  houses  on  his  estates,  to 
accumulate  a  fortune  for  his  children.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  active  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  and  zealous  as 
a  preacher.  He  died  in  1588.  Twenty  two  of  his  dis- 
courses were  collected  together  in  1616,  and  printed  in 
■ito. — Life  hy  Whitaker.    Strype. 


SABAVIA,    ADEIAN. 

Of  Adrian  Saravia,  who  was  honoured  by  the  personal 
friendship  and  professional  confidence  of  the  illustrious 
Hooker,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  few  details  can  be  given. 
He  was  of  Spanish  extraction,  and  was  a  native  of  Artois, 
where  he  was  born  in  1531.  In  1582,  he  was  professor 
of  divinity  at  Leyden.  Being  well  skilled  in  ecclesi- 
astical antiquity,  he  was  a  strong  assertor  of  episcopacy, 
which,  raising  against  him  the  hostility  of  those  with 
whom  he  was  associated,  he  threw  himself  on  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Church  of  England  in  1587.  He  had 
some  time  before  recommended  himself  to  the  episcopal 
communion,  by  his  Answer  to  Beza's  book,  De  triplici 
Episcopatu.  Not  long  after  his  arrival  in  England, 
he  published  a  very  learned  book,  De  diversis  Gradibus 
Ministrorum  Evangelii.  In  this  tract,  he  proves  bishops 
not  only  of  a  superior  degree,  but  of  a  different  order 
3  F  F 


330  SARAVIA. 

from  priests.  This  book  was  dedicated  to  the  ministers 
of  the  Belgic  Churches,  where,  though  not  very  welcome, 
it  passed  without  contradiction.  But  Beza,  Danseus,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Genevians  gave  it  a  warmer  reception. 
They  looked  upon  the  principles  as  subversive  of  their 
ecclesiastical  government,  and  therefore  resolved  to  try 
their  strength  upon  it.  Beza,  it  seems,  had  other  busi- 
ness, and  therefore  left  the  undertaking  to  Danaeus. 
This  man,  whose  talent  lay  more  in  railing  than  rea- 
soning, made  little  of  it.  Beza  therefore  finding  it  ne- 
cessary to  reinforce  Danseus,  published  an  answer  in  the 
year  1593,  to  which  Saravia  replied  the  next  year.  Beza 
after  this  seemed  to  have  had  enough  of  the  controversy 
and  lay  by.  As  for  Saravia,  his  merit  was  not  overlooked 
by  the  English  bishops.  He  was  made  prebendary  of 
Westminster,  and  considered  in  other  respects  to  his 
satisfaction.  In  the  year  1594,  be  published  a  vindi- 
cation of  his  former  book,  of  which  an  account  is  given 
by  Strype,  who  says,  "  the  reason  that  moved  him  to  write 
upon  this  argument,  viz.,  that  the  three  orders  of  minis- 
ters were  anciently  and  universally  used  in  the  Christian 
Church,  was,  as  he  tells  us  himself,  that  he  had  observed, 
how  there  were  certain  scandalous  libels  (which  he  had 
read  before  he  came  into  England)  of  evil-tongued  men 
set  forth  ;  therein  impudently  and  rudely,  with  reproaches 
and  railing  speeches,  set  upon,  not  only  the  persons  of 
those  who  were  placed  over  the  Church  of  England, 
but  also  the  episcopal  dignity  and  degree  itself.  Which 
error,  he  said,  was  much  greater  than  they  could  be 
persuaded  of,  who  defended  it  with  the  very  great  scan- 
dal, not  only  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  of  all  the 
Christian   Churches   whatsoever. 

"That  what  he  had  done  therefore,  was  not  only, 
(whatsoever  some  thought)  to  defend  the  dignity  of  the 
English  bishops;  but  that  his  end  was,  if  not  to  take 
away,  yet,  at  least,-  to  lessen  the  offences  given  by  some 
of  their  own  men,  in   many  places,    to  the   bishops  of 


SAKAVIA.  sm 

all  the  Churches  of  Christ,  as  well  of  France  as  Ger- 
many, and  other  learned  men,  and  such  as  were  not 
ignorant  of  the  ancient  government  of  the  Church  ;  and 
to  supple  the  wound  which  they  then  had  made,  and 
would  never  heal,  and  as  much  as  might  be,  to  remove 
the  remoras  of  the  propagation  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel." 

"  That  he  had  therefore  some  notes  lying  by  him,  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  bishops,  and  the  dignity  of 
the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  comprised  in  a  few  chap- 
ters, which  he  thought  once  to  have  presented  to  the 
States  of  Holland.  Afterwards,  coming  into  England, 
he  fell  into  discourse  of  this  subject  with  some  pastors 
of  this  Church,  who  wondered  at  his  opinion  of  bishops 
and  seemed  to  him  to  believe,  that  he  rather  brought 
it  to  their  ears  as  a  matter  of  discourse,  than  that  he 
truly  thought  so  in  his  own  mind ;  besides,  he  saw 
their  own  Churches  (i.  e.  in  the  Low  Countries,  where 
he  lived)  look  that  w^ay,  as  favouring  the  seditious  and 
schismatic  party  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  might 
give  this  faction  in  England,  some  cause  to  depart 
from  and  contemn  this  Church.  That  he  therefore  on 
that  account,  to  free  those  Churches  where  he  lived, 
and  whereof  he  was  a  member,  from  such  suspicion, 
took  upon  him  the  pastoral  ministry  in  the  Church  of 
England,  and  withal  set  forth  his  tract  of  the  different 
Degrees  of  Ministers  in  the  Church ;  whereby  he  might 
(in  the  name  of  the  reformed  Churches  abroad)  give  a 
testimony  to  the  world  of  a  conjunction  of  their  minds 
in  one  and  the  same  faith.  And  this  he  was  invited 
to  do  by  the  good  example  of  the  bishops  of  the  Church 
of  England,  who,  notwithstanding  their  rites  and  cere- 
monies were  different  from  those  of  the  Churches  abroad 
among  whom  he  lived,  yet  did  not  only  bear  and  suffer 
strangers  to  use  their  own  customs  and  rites  in  their 
dioceses,  but  also  friendly  embraced  and  cherished  them. 
( As  they  did  the  Dutch  and  French  people  in  London, 


332  SARAVIA. 

Canterbury,  Norwich,  Colchester,  Sandwich,  Southamp- 
ton, &c.)  And  therefore  he  added,  that  they  did  ill, 
whosoever  separated  and  divided  one  from  another, 
because  of  external  rites  and  ceremonies. 

"And  when  he  saw,  that  all  the  best  sort  of  men  did 
not  abstain  from  the  communion  of  their  Churches 
abroad,  in  like  manner  he  always  thought,  that  he 
himself  ought  to  hold  communion  with  the  Churches 
of  England,  in  all  places  where  he  should  live.  And 
that  whensoever  it  happened  that  he  should  be  present 
in  their  churches  when  the  Lord's  Supper  was  cele- 
brated, he  partook  with  them  in  those  sacred  symbols 
of  the  peace  and  unity  of  Christians.  And  that  it  was 
a  certain  sign  of  a  very  w^ak  judgment,  or  else  of  a 
Pharisaical  pride  and  conceit,  to  refuse  the  communion 
of  the  Church,  (in  which  Christ,  and  grace  obtained 
for  us  by  Christ,  is  purely  taught)  only  for  different 
external  rites. 

"  The  same  learned  foreigner  farther  spake  his  mind 
concerning  this  venerable  order  of  bishops,  and  declared 
how  they  came  to  be  so  much  opposed ;  which,  me- 
thinks,  deserves  to  be  recorded,  being  historical.  Olivi 
Episcopos,  &c.  '  That  heretofore  no  good  man  did  dis- 
allow of  bishops  and  archbishops  ;  but  now  it  w^as  come 
to  pass,  by  the  hatred  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  tyranny 
and  his  party,  that  these  very  names  were  called  into 
question ;  and  that  by  divers,  on  a  different  account ; 
some,  because  they  believed  that  such  things  as  were 
invented  by  Anti-christ,  or  by  those  who  made  way  for 
him,  were  to  be  banished  forth  without  of  the  Church  ; 
others,  more  modest,  thought  for  the  reverence  of  an- 
tiquity, that  they  were  to  be  borne  withal,  (although 
they  approved  them  not,)  until  they  might  conveniently 
with  the  thing  itself,  be  antiquated.  They  dared  not 
openly  indeed  condemn  bishops  and  archbishops,  whom 
they  knew  to  have  presided  over  the  Church,  and  that 
with  great  fruit  and  benefit:   but  they  were  willing  to 


SARAVIA.  883 

let  them  go,  because  they  saw  some  reformed  Churches 
of  these  times,  which  had  received  the  Gospel,  and  re- 
jected the  tyranny  of  the  Romish  bishop,  and  had  cast 
off  all  the  government  of  bishops,  did  not  approve  these 
fathers,  and  were  more  pleased  with  a  new  form  of  eccle- 
siastical government,  as  believing  it  to  be  instituted  by 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Himself,  and  most  different  from 
all  ambition  and  tyranny,  &c.  But,'  added  he,  'why 
I  do  not  in  like  manner  approve  that  form,  this  is  my 
reason,  because  it  doth  not  seem  to  be  sufficiently  de- 
monstrated by  the  Word  of  God,  nor  confirmed  by  any 
example  of  those  that  were  before  us,  our  ancestors,  as 
being  partly  unknown  to  them,  and  partly  condemned 
in  such  as  were  heretics.' 

•'  Therefore,  of  this  new  manner  of  governing  the 
Church,  he  was,  he  said,  of  the  same  opinion  that  others 
held  of  the  government  of  bishops,  namely,  that  it  was 
human,  [as  Beza  did,]  and  to  be  borne  with,  till  another 
that  was  better  could  be  obtained:  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  which  was  disallowed  of,  as  human,  seemed 
to  him  to  be  divine ;  as  being  that  which,  as  well  in  the 
Old  as  New  Testament,  was  instituted  by  God.  But 
because  it  had  been  defiled  by  the  wicked  deeds  of  men, 
that  which  was  to  be  attributed  to  man's  impiety  was 
ascribed  [amiss]  to  the  function ;  as  if  no  like  calamity 
might  happen  to  this  new  kind  of  government,  &c.  If 
any  objected,  that  there  were  many  corruptions  in  the 
government  of  bishops,  of  that  matter  he  intended  no 
disputation ;  but  that  the  same  complaint  might  be 
made  of  the  government  of  civil  magistrates ;  but  no 
man  in  his  wits  ever  thought  that  a  fit  reason  to  remove 
from  the  magistracy  all  those  who  were  over  the  com- 
monwealth, [how  well  soever  they  governed.] 

"  The  question  then  was,  whether  our  Lord  forbade  a 
primacy,  with  more  eminent  power,  among  the  pastors 
of  the  Church,  and  ministers  of  the  Gospel :  that  a 
pastor  might  not  be  set  over  a  pastor,  and  a  bishop  over 


334  SAHPI. 

a  bishop,  to  preserve  external  polity;  not  how  bishops 
had  used  their  authority.  If  any  were  minded  to  accuse 
bishops  and  their  consistories,  either  of  neglect  of  their 
duties,  or  for  unjust  judgments  given,  there  was  nobody 
hindered  but  that  such  things  might  be  brought  before 
the  chief  magistrate.  That,  for  his  part,  he  undertook 
the  defence  of  no  bishop,  nor  was  he  so  considerable  to 
do  it ;  nor  had  they  need  of  his  defence ;  they  were  able 
to  speak  for  themselves,  and  to  answer  their  detractors. 
All  that  he  did  was  to  lament,  that  the  ancient  order, 
necessary  for  preserving  discipline  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  and  most  diligently  observed  by  the  fathers, 
should  be  quite  taken  away :  and  that  he  exceedingly 
feared,  lest  by  the  calamity  of  that  age,  it  might  be 
wholly  taken  away  ;  because  he  saw  the  men  of  his 
times  were  so  disposed,  as  to  desire  that  the  whole  min- 
istry of  the  Church  might  be  reduced  to  the  bare  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel.  These  were  the  sentiments  of 
Saravia,  that  learned  stranger,  which  was  the  cause  of 
his  writing  his  thoughts  concerning  the  ej)is copal  order." 
He  died  in  1613,  and  was  interred  in  Canterbury 
Cathedral.  All  his  works  were  published  in  1611,  in 
folio.  He  must  have  acquired  a  very  extensive  knowledge 
of  the  English  language,  as  we  find  his  name  in  the  first 
class  of  those  whom  James  I.  employed  in  the  new 
translation  of  the  Bible. — Collier.    Strype.    Walton. 


SARPI. 

Saepi,  commonly  called  Father  Paul,  or  Fra  Paolo,  was 
baptized  by  the  name  of  Peter,  but  according  to  an 
iniquitous  custom  of  the  Romish  Church  took  the  name 
of  Paul  when  he  entered  the  order  of  the  Servites. 
He  was  born  at  Venice,  in  1552.  He  was  the  son 
of  a  merchant  who  had  come  from  St.  Veit  to  Venice, 
and    of    a  lady    of  the    Venetian   family    of    Morelli, 


SARPI.  835 

which  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  cittadinanza.  His 
father  was  a  little,  swarthy,  impetuous,  quarrelsome 
man,  who  had  ruined  himself  hy  erroneous  speculations. 
His  mother  was  one  of  those  beautiful  Venetian  blondes 
not  unfrequently  to  be  seen ;  her  figure  was  large,  and 
her  character  marked  by  modesty  and  good  sense.  Her 
son  resembled  her  in  his  features. 

A  brother  of  hers,  Ambrosio  Morelli,  was  then  at  the 
head  of  a  school  which  enjoyed  peculiar  reputation,  and 
was  principally  devoted  to  the  education  of  the  young 
nobility.  Of  course  the  master's  nephew  was  admitted 
to  share  the  instruction.  Nicoli  Contarini  and  Andrea 
Morosini  were  Paolo's  school-fellows,  and  were  very  inti- 
mate wfth  him.  In  the  very  threshold  of  his  life  he 
formed  the  most  important  connexions. 

Nevertheless,  he  did  not  suffer  himself  to  be  restrained 
either  by  his  mother  or  by  his  uncle,  or  by  these  con- 
nexions, from  following  his  inclination  for  solitude,  and 
entering  a  convent  of  Servites  as  early  as  in  his  four- 
teenth or  fifteenth  year. 

Sarpi  spoke  little,  and  was  always  serious.  He  never 
ate  meat,  and  till  his  thirtieth  year  drank  no  wine ;  he 
abhorred  lewd  discourse :  '•  Here  comes  the  maiden," 
his  companions  used  to  say  when  he  appeared,  "let  us 
talk  of  something  else."  Every  wish,  inclination,  or 
desire  he  was  capable  of,  was  fixed  on  those  studies 
for  which  he  was  endowed  with  remarkable  aptitude. 

He  possessed  the  inestimable  gift  of  rapid  and  just 
apprehension ;  for  instance,  he  always  recognized  again 
a  person  whom  he  had  once  seen,  or  when  he  entered 
a  garden,  he  saw  and  remarked  everything  in  it  at  a 
glance ;  his  vision,  both  mental  and  bodily,  was  clear 
and  penetrating.  Hence  he  applied  himself  with  par- 
ticular success  to  natural  sciences.  His  admirers  ascribe 
to  him  the  discovery  of  the  valves  in  the  blood  vessels, 
and  of  the  dilatation  and  contraction  of  the  pupil,  the 
first  observation  of  the  dip  of  the  needle,  and  of  a  great 


386  SARPI. 

many  other  magnetic  phenomena,  and  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  he  took  a  Uvely  share  both  in  the  way  of 
suggestion  and  discovery,  in  the  labours  of  Aquapen- 
dente,  and  still  more  of  Porta.  To  his  physical  studies 
he  added  mathematical  calculations,  and  the  observation 
of  intellectual  phenomena.  In  the  Servite  library  in 
Venice,  was  kept  a  copy  of  the  works  of  Vieta,  in  which 
many  errors  of  that  author  were  corrected  by  the  hand 
of  Fra  Paola :  there  was  also  preserved  there,  a  little 
treatise  of  his  on  the  origin  and  decline  of  opinions 
among  men,  which,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  extracts 
given  from  it  by  Foscarini,  contained  a  theory  of  the 
intellectual  powers,  which  regarded  sensation  and 
reflexion  as  their  foundations,  and  had  much  analogy 
to  the  theory  of  Locke,  if  it  did  not  quite  so  strictly 
coincide  with  it,  as  some  have  asserted.  Fra  Paolo 
wrote  only  as  much  as  was  necessary :  he  had  no 
natural  promptings  to  original  composition:  he  read 
continually,  and  appropriated  what  he  read  or  observed : 
his  intellect  was  sober  and  capacious,  methodical  and 
bold  ;  he  trod  the  path  of  free  enquiry. 

With  these  powers  he  now  advanced  to  questions  of 
theology  and  of  ecclesiastical  law. 

It  has  been  said  he  was  in  secret  a  Protestant ;  biat 
his  Protestantism  could  hardly  have  gone  beyond  the 
first  simple  propositions  of  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
even  if  he  subscribed  to  these :  at  all  events,  Fra  Paolo 
read  mass  daily  all  his  life.  It  is  impossible  to  specify 
the  form  of  religion  to  which  he  inwardly  adhered ;  it 
was  a  kind  often  embraced  in  those  days,  especially  by 
men  who  devoted  themselves  to  natural  science, — a 
mode  of  opinion  shackled  by  none  of  the  existing  sys- 
tems of  doctrine,  dissentient  and  speculative,  but  neither 
accurately  defined  nor  fully  worked  out. 

Thus  much,  however,  is  certain,  that  Fra  Paolo  bore 
a  decided  and  implacable  hatred  to  the  temporal  autho- 
rity of  the  pope.     This  was  perhaps  the  only  passion 


SARPI.  337  • 

he  cherished.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  attribute 
it  to  the  refusal  of  a  bishopric  for  which  he  had  been 
proposed ;  and  who  may  deny  the  effect  which  a  morti- 
fying rejection,  barring  the  path  of  natural  ambition, 
may  have  even  on  a  manly  spirit?  Nevertheless,  the 
true  cause  lay  far  deeper.  It  was  a  politico-religious 
habit  of  thought,  bound  up  with  every  other  conviction 
of  Sarpi's  mind,  corroborated  by  study  and  experience, 
and  shared  with  his  friends,  his  contemporaries,  the 
men  who  once  had  assembled  at  Morosini's,  and  who 
now  swayed  the  helm  of  the  state.  Before  the  keenness 
of  his  penetrating  observation  vanished  those  chimerical 
arguments,  with  which  the  Jesuits  laboured  to  prop 
up  their  assertions,  and  those  doctrines,  the  real  foun- 
dation of  which  was,  in  fact,  to  be  looked  for  only  in 
a  devotion  to  the  Roman  See,  created  by  a  by-gone  con- 
dition of  society. 

About  the  year  1602,  commenced  the  great  contro- 
versy between  the  Republic  of  Venice  and  the  Pope  of 
Rome.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  enter  into  the  details. 
The  story  is  the  oft-repeated  one.  On  the  one  hand  the 
most  unjustifiable  pretensions  were  advanced  by  the 
Pope,  which,  under  the  direction  of  father  Paul,  were 
reasonably  and  manfully  resisted  by  the  Rulers  of  the 
Republic,  who,  nevertheless,  in  the  end  submitted  to  an 
unworthy  compromise.  The  conduct  of  Paul  Sarpi 
throughout  the  affair  was  such  as  to  raise  him  to  the 
highest  consideration  in  Europe.  Pending  these  dis- 
putes, being  appointed  theologian  and  one  of  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  Republic,  he  drew  up  a  treatise  entitled, 
Consolation  of  Mind  to  tranquillize  the  Consciences  of 
good  Men,  and  to  prevent  their  entertaining  any  Dread 
of  the  Interdict,  published  by  Paul  V.  As  this  work  was 
designed  for  the  sole  use  of  government,  it  was  not  pub- 
lished by  the  author,  but  was  locked  up  in  the  archives 
of  the  republic;  whence  a  copy  having  some  years 
afterwards  been  clandestinely  obtained,  it  was  published 

VOL.  VIH.  G    G 


•  338  SARPI. 

at  the  Hague  in  1725,  both  in  the  Italian  and  French 
languages.  In  the  same  year  an  English  version  of  it 
appeared  in  London.  Sarpi  also  published  a  translation 
of  A  Treatise  on  Excommunication,  by  Gerson,  both  in 
Latin  and  Italian,  with  an  anonymous  letter  prefixed  to 
it.  This  work  was  immediately  condemned  by  the  In- 
quisition ;  whose  sentence  Bellarmine  undertook  to  sup- 
port in  a  strain  of  sophistical  reasoning,  which  Sarpi 
ably  detected  in  An  Aj^ology  for  Gerson.  To  the  suc- 
ceeding champions  for  the  papal  see,  among  whom  were 
Baronius  and  Bzovius,  Sarpi  made  an  unanswerable 
reply  in  a  piece  entitled,  Considerations  on  the  Censures 
of  Paul  V. 

Sarpi  had  also  a  share  in  some  other  treatises  in  this 
memorable  controversy ;  particularly  in  A  Treatise  on 
the  Interdict,  published  in  the  names  of  seven  divines 
of  the  republic.  At  length  the  papal  court  cited  Sarpi 
by  a  decree,  October  30,  1606,  under  penalty  of  excom- 
munication, to  appear  in  person  at  Rome,  and  justify 
himself  from  the  heresies  of  which  he  was  accused. 
Despising,  however,  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican,  he 
refused  to  submit  to  the  citation. 

Even  when  the  pope  had  come  to  an  understanding 
with  the  republic,  the  court  of  Rome  could  not  forgive 
Sarpi's  attacks  on  the  pope's  authority ;  and  some  of  its 
fanatical  adherents  were  persuaded  that  it  would  be  a 
highly  meritorious  action  to  make  away  with  a  man  who 
had  been  condemned  for  heresy.  Sarpi  received  inti- 
mations from  various  quarters  that  designs  were  formed 
either  against  his  liberty  or  his  life ;  but,  trusting  to  the 
accommodation  which  had  taken  place,  and  the  rectitude 
of  his  own  conduct,  he  lived  in  a  state  of  security  which 
gave  his  enemies  favourable  opportuities  of  carrying 
their  plans  into  execution.  Returning  to  his  monastery 
on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  October,  1607,  he  was 
attacked  by  five  assassins  armed  with  stilettoes,  who 
wounded  him  in  fifteen  places,   and  left  him  for  dead 


SARPI.  339 

upon  the  spot.  Providentially,  none  of  these  wounds 
proved  mortal,  though  three  of  them  were  exceedingly 
dangerous.  No  sooner  was  the  senate  informed  of  this 
murderous  attempt,  than,  to  show  their  high  regard  for 
the  sufferer,  and  their  detestation  of  such  a  horrid 
attempt,  they  broke  up  immediately,  and  came  that  night 
in  great  numbers  to  his  monastery ;  ordered  the  physi- 
cians to  bring  them  regular  accounts  of  him  :  and  after- 
wards knighted  and  richly  rewarded  Acquapendente, 
for  the  great  skill  which  he  discovered  in  curing  him. 
That  Sarpi  himself  entertained  no  doubts  respecting  the 
quarter  from  which  this  wicked  aim  at  his  life  proceeded, 
appears  from  his  saying  pleasantly  to  his  friend  Acqua- 
pendente one  day  while  he  was  dressing  his  wounds, 
that  they  were  made  Stylo  Romanse  Curiae.  One  of  the 
weapons,  which  the  assassin  had  driven  with  such  force 
into  Sarpi's  cheek  that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  it  in  the 
wound,  was  hung  up  at  the  foot  of  a  crucifix  in  the 
Church  of  the  Servites,  with  this  inscription,  Deo  Filio 
Liberatori. 

Sarpi  himself  was  now  aware  of  the  necessity  of  living 
more  privately  in  his  monastery.  In  this  retirement 
he  wrote  his  Account  of  the  Quarrel  between  Paul  V. 
and  the  Republic  of  Venice,  published  in  1608.  His 
attention  was  directed  in  the  next  place  to  the  arrange- 
ment and  completion  of  his  celebrated  History  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  for  which  he  had  long  before  collected 
ample  materials.  It  was  first  published  in  London,  by 
Sir  Nathaniel  Brent,  (by  whom  also  it  was  translated 
into  English,)  in  1619,  in  folio,  under  the  feigned  name 
of  Pietro  Soave  Polano,  which  is  an  anagram  of  Paolo 
Sarpi  Venetiano,  and  dedicated  to  James  I.  by  Anthony 
de  Dominis,  Archbishop  of  Spalatro,  then  a  resident 
in  England.  It  was  afterwards  published  in  the  original 
Italian,  the  French,  and  other  languages;  and  in  1736, 
father  Courayer  published  in  London  a  new  French 
translation  of  it  in  2  vols,  folio,  illustrated  with  valuable 


340  SAUEIN. 

critical,  historical,  and  theological  notes.  Sarpi  also 
in  the  retirement  of  his  monastery,  wrote  : — A  Treatise 
on  Ecclesiastical  Benefices,  pointing  out  the  means  by 
which  the  Church  had  acquired  its  immense  revenues, 
and  the  abuses  which  had  taken  place  in  the  disposal 
of  them ;  A  Treatise  on  the  Inquisition;  De  Jure  Asylo- 
rum ;  a  Treatise  On  the  Manner  of  conducting  the 
Government  of  a  Republic,  so  as  to  insure  its  Duration ; 
and  a  continuation  of  Minuccio  Minucci's,  Archbishop 
of  Zara's,  History  of  the  Uscocchi,  from  1602  to  1616. 
The  articles  already  enumerated,  together  with  a  volume 
of  Letters,  are  all  the  productions  of  Sarpi's  pen  which 
have  been  published. 

He  died  on  the  14th  of  January,  1623,  in  the  seventy- 
second  year  of  his  age. 

Of  Paul  Sarpi's  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
Ranke  concludes  an  elaborate  criticism  with  saying: 
"  His  authorities  are  diligently  collected,  very  well 
handled,  and  used  with  superior  intelligence ;  nor  can 
it  be  said  that  they  are  falsified,  or  that  they  are 
frequently  or  essentially  perverted  ; — but  a  spirit  of 
decided  opposition  pervades  the  whole  work. 

"  In  this  way  Sarpi  struck  anew  into  a  different  course 
from  that  commonly  pursued  by  the  historians  of  his 
day.  He  gave  to  their  system  of  compilation  the  unity 
of  a  general  tone  and  purpose :  his  work  is  disparaging, 
condemnatory,  and  hostile ;  he  set  the  first  example  of 
a  history  which  accompanies  the  whole  progress  of  its 
subject  with  increasing  censure ;  far  more  decided  in 
this  than  Thuanus,  who  first  made  a  cursory  use  of 
this  method.  Sarpi  has  found  numberless  imitators  on 
this  score.  (See  the  Life  of  Pallavicini.) — Fulgentio. 
Life  of  Walton.     Johnson.     Hanke. 

SAURIN,    JAMES. 

James  Saukin  was  born  at  Nismes,  in  1677,  and  upon 


SAVONAROLA.  341 

the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685,  he  went 
with  his  father  into  exile,  and  having  settled  at  Geneva, 
was  educated  there.  In  his  seventeenth  year  he  quitted 
his  studies  to  enter  the  army,  and  made  a  campaign  as  a 
cadet  in  Lord  Galloway's  company.  But  he  quitted  the 
army,  and  returned  to  his  studies  at  Geneva  in  1696. 

In  1700,  he  went  to  Holland,  and  thence  to  England, 
where  he  continued  nearly  five  years,  and  preached  with 
great  acceptance  among  his  fellow  refugees  in  London. 
In  1703  he  married.  Two  years  afterwards  he  returned 
to  Holland,  where  he  became  pastor  to  a  Church  of 
French  refugees,  who  were  permitted  to  assemble  in  the 
chapel  belonging  to  the  palace  of  the  Princes  of  Orange 
at  the  Hague,  in  which  he  officiated  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  He  died  in  1730,  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  the  author  of  12  volumes  of  Sermons,  five 
of  which  were  published  by  himself,  between  the  years 
1708  and  1725,  in  8vo,  and  the  remainder  from  his  MSS. 

Saurin  also  published,  The  State  of  Christianity  in 
France  ;  A  Compendium  of  Christian  Divinity  and  Mo- 
rality, in  the  Catechetical  Form;  and.  Discourses  His- 
torical, Critical,  and  Moral,  on  the  most  memorable 
Events  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  This  last, 
which  is  his  principal  work,  forms  6  large  folio  volumes. 
He  died  before  the  3rd  volume  was  completed,  which 
was  finished  by  Roques,  who  added  a  fourth  volume  on 
the  Old  Testament;  Beausolve  adding  two  other  volumes 
on  the  New  Testament. — Life  prefixed  to  the  Translation 
of  his  Sermons  by  Robinson. 


SAVONAROLA,    GIROLAMO  MARIA  FRANCESCO  MATTHEO. 

This  extraordinary  person  is  regarded  by  some  as  a 
patriot  and  reformer,  and  by  others  he  is  represented 
as  a  fanatic  and  a  demagogue.  Impartial  history,  while 
it  cannot  entirely  acquit  him  of  fanaticism,  vyill  represent 
G  G   3 


343  SAVONAROLA. 

hira  as  a  pious  and  disinterested  man  whose  generous 
spirit  was  roused  to  indignation  by  the  iniquities  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  whose  objects  were  noble.  He 
was  born  on  the  21st  of  September,  1452.  He  was 
educated  at  first  by  his  grandfather,  and  on  his  death 
his  father  procured  for  him  teachers  from  whom  he 
became  acquainted  with  Greek  and  Roman  literature, 
the  study  of  which  had  been  lately  revived.  He  was 
intended  for  the  medical  profession,  but  having  been 
crossed  in  love,  he  suddenly  determined  "  to  leave  the 
world,"  as  the  Romanists  style  it,  and  in  1475,  he  sought 
refuge  in  the  Dominican  Cloister  at  Bologna,  acting  thus 
in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  his  father. 

Rigid  in  all  the  observances  of  his  ascetic  rule,  hum- 
ble, holy,  devoted,  Savonarola  soon  obtained  as  high  a 
reputation  for  sanctity  as  for  learning;  for  a  time  he 
was  entirely  occupied  in  reforming  himself,  and  his 
companions  were  glad  to  share  the  credit  of  his  piety, 
while  as  yet  their  repose  was  undisturbed  by  that  in- 
convenient goodness  which  aims  at  reforming  others. 

In  his  lonely  cell,  by  fervent  prayer  and  devout  medi- 
tation he  learnt  more  and  more  of  the  attributes  of  God, 
and  of  the  nature  of  His  commands  to  His  creatures. 
It  seems  natural  that  an  honest  mind,  enlightened  by 
just  ideas  of  the  Deity,  should  look  for  truth  in  the 
agreement  of  written  revelation  with  the  light  of  natural 
conscience,  and  with  the  providential  government  of  the 
universe,  since,  each  emanating  from  the  source  of  truth, 
they  must  agree  perfectly  together,  though  sometimes 
their  connection  is  concealed ;  and  that  in  any  apparent 
contradiction  it  should  suspect  some  error  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  one  of  these.  Savonarola  knew  his  Bible 
well ;  he  observed  that  the  consciences  of  his  Romish 
brethren,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  were  so  far  from  re- 
sponding to  its  precepts  that  the  general  tone  of  morals 
was  thoroughly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and   his  first  alarm   was  the   discovery   of  this 


SAVONAROLA.  343 

darkened  conscience ;  he  did  not  yet  fully  perceive  the 
deeper  evil,  that  by  the  false  interpretations  of  his 
Church,  Scripture  itself  was  wrested  to  support  those 
who  called  evil  good,  though  suspicions  of  false  doctrines 
are  often  mingled  with  censures  of  moral  guilt. 

In  the  New  Testament  he  devoted  his  special  attention 
to  the  study  of  the  Apocalypse,  but  he  did  not  confine 
himself  to  the  New  Testament ;  he  had  indeed  a  strong 
partiality  for  the  Old.  The  brothers  of  his  order  were 
surprised  at  the  predilection  of  Savonarola  for  a  book 
which  had  fallen  into  such  neglect  in  the  seats  of  reli- 
gion ; — most  of  all,  they  wondered  at  the  great  attention 
and  regard  which  he  paid  to  the  more  ancient  writings. 
"Why,"  demanded  the  monks  of  Savonarola,  "do  you 
study  the  Old  Testament  ?  Surely  it  is  of  no  use  to  go 
over  again  the  past,  and  perplex  our  minds  with  the 
understanding  of  fulfilled  histories  ?"  To  this  question 
Savonarola  replied  by  another — "  For  what  purpose  then 
has  God  preserved  these  writings?  and  why  have  the 
fathers  of  the  Church  equally  expounded  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  and  recognized  the  inter- dependency 
of  the  one  with  the  other?"  Not  a  reason  for  study,  but 
an  excuse  for  their  indolence,  was  what  the  monks  had 
desired — so  they  left  Savonarola  unanswered,  and  the 
Scriptures  unread. 

When  he  was  ordained  he  soon  became  celebrated  as 
a  preacher,  although  in  his  first  attempts  at  sacred 
oratory  he  appears  to  have  failed.  And  from  an  early 
period  in  his  career  he  assumed  the  position  of  a  re- 
former. In  the  year  1485,  he  preached  in  Brescia, 
where  he  there  describes  the  state  of  the  medieval 
Church. 

"  The  popes  have  attained  through  the  most  shameful 
simony  and  subtlety  the  highest  priestly  dignities,  and 
even  then,  when  seated  in  the  holy  chair,  surrender 
themselves  to  a  shamefully  voluptuous  life  and  an  insa- 
tiable avarice.     The  cardinals  and  bishops  follow  their 


344  SAVONAROLA. 

example.  No  discipline,  no  fear  of  God  is  in  them. 
Many  believe  in  no  God.  The  chastity  of  the  cloister 
is  slain,  and  they  who  should  serve  God  with  holy  zeal 
have  become  cold  or  lukewarm.  The  princes  openly 
exercise  tyranny.  Their  subjects  encourage  them  in 
their  evil  propensities,  their  robberies,  their  adulteries, 
their  sacrileges.  But,  after  the  corrupted  human  race 
has  abused  for  so  many  centuries  the  long-suffering  of 
God,  then  at  last  the  justice  of  God  appears,  demanding 
that  the  rulers  of  the  people,  who  with  base  examples 
corrupt  all  the  rest,  should  be  brought  to  heavy  punish- 
ment, and  that  the  people  of  Asia  and  Africa,  now 
dwelling  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance,  should  be  made 
partakers  of  the  light." 

From  this  time  his  fame  as  a  preacher  and  even  as  a 
prophet  spread  far  and  wide,  until  in  1487,  he  became 
Prior  of  St.  Marco  in  Florence.  The  monastery  of  St. 
Marco  had  been  founded  by  Cosmo  di  Medici,  and  as 
the  patronage  still  remained  in  his  family,  they  naturally 
expected  the  deference  which  former  priors  had  willingly 
paid  to  protectors  so  powerful  and  so  worthy.  Savona- 
rola however  looked  with  a  jealous  eye  upon  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Medici  as  hostile  to  liberty ;  he  refused  on 
his  induction  to  acknowledge  Lorenzo  as  head  of  the 
republic,  and  shunned  his  presence  when  he  visited  the 
monastery,  alleging  that  he  held  communion  with  God 
and  not  with  man :  when  reminded  that  Lorenzo  was 
in  the  garden,  he  inquired,  "Did  he  ask  for  me?" 
"No."  "Then  let  him  proceed  with  his  devotions." 
By  reviving  in  example  and  precept  the  austere  rule  of 
St.  Dominic,  he  became  obnoxious  to  all  those  in  his 
convent  into  whom  he  could  not  infuse  some  portion  of 
his  own  enthusiasm,  and  to  whom  his  conduct  was  a 
constant  reproach.  He  was  a  great  enemy  to  idleness  ; 
slept  but  four  hours,  being  present  day  and  night  in 
choir  at  all  sacred  offices ;  and  he  gave  audiences  at 
certain  times  to  all  who  wanted  his  help  in  resolving 


SAVONAROLA.  345 

conscientious  scruples.  His  greatest  recreation  was 
when  a  little  leisure  remained  to  be  passed  with  the 
novices  :  he  often  said  to  the  old  fathers,  "  Do  you  wish 
I  should  preach  well  ?  give  me  time  to  converse  with  my 
children."  While  with  them  he  ever  spoke  of  divine 
things  and  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  acknowledged 
that  this  way  he  had  learned  much,  for  that  God  often- 
times spoke  and  expounded  His  revelation  by  these  sim- 
ple youths  as  by  pure  vessels  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  cells  of  the  monks  were  frequently  visited  by  their 
prior,  who  heard  or  inquired  what  was  the  subject  of 
their  conversation :  if  it  concerned  eternity,  he  excited 
them  to  greater  animation,  mingling  in  it,  and  remind- 
ing them  that  God  was  present ;  if  they  were  not  occu- 
pied in  celestial  things,  he  adroitly  changed  the  strain 
to  something  holy  in  such  a  way  that  none  were  embar- 
rassed, and  all  became  accustomed  to  spiritual  converse. 
He  was  strictly  abstemious,  and  no  man  ever  doubted 
his  chastity.  He  desired  the  coarsest  and  most  patched 
clothing ;  once  in  consulting  about  reformation  with  two 
abbots  of  Vallambrosa,  he  happened  to  glance  at  their 
cowls,  which  were  of  beautiful  velvet,  and  smiled;  the 
abbots,  somewhat  blushing,  said  by  way  of  excuse,  "  Bro- 
ther, do  not  wonder  at  the  fineness  of  our  cowls,  they 
last  so  much  the  longer;"  the  brother  replied,  •'  What  a 
pity  St.  Benedetto  and  St.  Gio.  Gualbert  did  not  know 
this  secret,  they  would  have  worn  the  same." 

Not  content  with  monastic  reform,  Savonarola  pro- 
ceeded openly  to  attack  the  authority  of  the  Medici, 
accusing  them  of  aiming  at  the  sovereignty  of  the  state  ; 
and,  according  to  the  account  of  some  contemporary 
authors,  predicting  the  fall  of  the  family  under  Pietro 
and  the  approaching  death  of  Lorenzo.  The  latter  how- 
ever showed  no  disposition  to  punish  this  presumption, 
but  merely  restrained  Savonarola  from  giving  public 
lectures,  and  declared  that  all  attempts  to  reform  the 
morals  of  the  Florentines  met  with  his  hearty  concur^ 


346  SAVONAROLA. 

rence.  He  gave  also  very  decided  testimony  of  his 
esteem  for  the  character  of  the  reformer,  in  sending  for 
him  when  at  the  point  of  death,  that  he  might  receive 
his  confession  and  bestow  absolution.  Savonarola  went. 
To  his  inquiries  if  Lorenzo  continued  firm  in  the  Catho- 
lic faith,  the  latter  replied  in  the  affirmative.  Then  he 
exacted  a  promise  that  whatever  had  been  unjustly 
obtained  from  others  should  be  restored ;  Lorenzo  an- 
swered, "  Certainly,  father,  I  shall  do  so'  or  if  not  able, 
I  shall  strictly  enjoin  the  duty  on  my  successors."  To 
an  exhortation  on  bearing  death  with  fortitude,  he  re- 
plied, "  Cheerfully,  if  it  be  the  will  of  God;"  but  when 
Savonarola  further  insisted  that  he  should  re-establish 
the  independence  of  Florence,  he  refused  to  comply, 
and  the  father  departed  without  absolving  him.  Poli- 
tiano,  who  might  probably  have  been  present,  says  that 
Savonarola  did  give  absolution,  but  as  his  narrative  does 
not  agree  so  well  with  the  characters  of  the  parties  as 
that  of  Pico,  the  friend  and  biographer  of  Savonarola, 
and  as  he  was  a  man  to  whom  all  religious  ordinances 
were  indifferent,  if  not  contemptible,  he  is  very  likely 
to  be  incorrect :  impartiality  is  out  of  the  question  in 
both  cases. 

Pietro  di  Medici  succeeded  his  father,  but  could  not 
hold  the  reins  of  government  with  so  firm  a  hand,  and 
Florence  was  soon  distracted  by  factions. 

Savonarola  now  took  a  more  decided  part  in  affairs  of 
state.  Not  only  in  the  Duomo  and  St.  Marco,  which 
were  crowded,  but  in  the  public  squares,  he  harangued 
assembled  thousands,  bitterly  inveighing  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  pontifical  court,  no  less  than  against 
the  general  licentiousness  of  manners  and  the  domineer- 
ing spirit  of  the  Medici.  He  even  delivered  prophecies 
of  future  miseries,  to  the  utterance  and  accomplishment 
of  which  friends  and  enemies  alike  bear  witness :  the 
latter  attributing  them  to  his  uncommon  sagacity  and 
extensive  information;    the   former   to  the   immediate 


SAVONAROLA.  347 

inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — both  probably  consider- 
ing as  deliberate  assertion  many  things  which  were  but 
scintillations  of  his  fiery  eloquence,  and  which  rather 
threatened  than  foretold  the  disastrous  future. 

But  his  politics  did  not  distract  his  mind  from  his 
spiritual  duties  as  a  preacher;  and  at  Florence,  as  for- 
merly at  Brescia,  we  find  him  drawing  a  picture  of  the 
state  of  religion,  when  Popery  was  predominant.  "  In 
our  days,"  says  he,  "  when  all  Christians  have  come  to 
such  a  pass,  that  they  communicate  only  once  a  year, 
and  that  with  very  sorry  preparation,  they  are  worse 
than  the  heathen  were,  and  every  day  become  more 
depraved.  Every  year  they  confess  their  sins,  and  yet 
return  to  the  same  sins,  promising  God  every  time  to 
live  better,  but  never  performing  their  promises.  Our 
priests,  who  without  devotion  and  reverence  administer 
the  Supper,  are  yet  worse  than  the  laity.  Thus  because 
Christians  have  forsaken  the  true  service  of  Christ,  they 
are  now-a-days  fallen  into  such  blindness,  that  they  know 
not  what  the  name  of  Christian  means,  and  wherein  the 
true  service  of  God  consists.  They  occupy  themselves 
with  outward  ceremonies,  and  know  nothing  of  the  inner 
service  of  God.  Seldom  or  never  they  read  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  or  if  they  read  them,  they  understand  them 
not;  or  if  they  understand  them,  they  have  no  taste 
for  them — yea,  they  only  say,  *  Our  soul  is  disgusted 
with  this  vulgar  feast.  Who  will  give  us  to  hear  Cicero's 
eloquence,  and  the  sounding  words  of  the  poets,  the  soft 
diction  of  Plato,  and  the  acuteness  of  Aristotle?  For 
the  Scriptures  are  far  too  simple,  contain  food  only  fit 
for  women.  Preach  to  us  the  refined  and  sublime.' 
And  thus  the  preachers  accommodate  themselves  to 
the  people.  Since  they  could  no  more  endure  sound 
doctrine,  the  people  have  given  themselves  to  lies, 
they  invite  such  teachers  as  suit  their  itching  ears,  they 
turn  themselves  away  from  the  truth,  and  follow  cun- 
ningly-devised fables.     Also  the  princes  and  heads  of 


us  SAVONAROLA; 

the  people  will  not  hear  the  truth,  but  say,  *  Preach  to 
us  what  pleases  us,  preach  to  us  flatteries,  and  tell  us 
something  good.'  And  hence.  Christian  people  now 
wander  in  great  darkness." 

Of  the  state  of  the  monasteries  and  the  ill  effects  of 
the  constrained  celibacy  of  the  clergy  we  have  his  opinion 
thus  stated: — "'The  chastity  of  the  cloister  is  slain!' 
Had  not  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  become  a  futile  pretext, 
provoking  fornication  and  adultery,  and  encouraging  con- 
cubinage ?  Had  not  the  Church  become  a  brothel  ?  was 
not  the  Church  of  Rome  even  the  Mother  of  Harlots  ? 
Was  it  not  written  on  her  front,  blazoned  shamelessly 
on  the  folds  of  her  tiara  ?  Did  she  any  longer  attempt 
to  conceal  it  ?  was  not  the  veil  altogether  withdrawn  ? 
Innocent  VIII.  regarded  as  no  crime  what  he  had  in- 
herited as  a  custom.  The  clergy  were  rendered  dissolute 
by  an  absurd  regulation,  which  outraged  nature  without 
ministering  to  grace,  and  violated  the  precept  of  Scrip- 
ture, declaring,  that  '  Marriage  is  honourable  in  all.' 
The  cloisters  were  grossly  immoral — most  odious  prac- 
tices were  indulged — all  due  to  what  Luther  calls  '  the 
hell  of  celibacy.' "  Savanarola  had  not  arrived  at  this 
perception;  he  was  a  monk.  He  thought  it  right  to 
take  the  vow  of  chastity — he  had  taken  it,  and  he  kept 
it.  In  all  the  relations  of  life,  he  w^as  a  sincere  man ; 
and  it  was  this  which  made  him  sternly  heroic — which 
fitted  him  for  a  reformer — which  predisposed  him  for  the 
martyr's  crown. 

It  does  not  fall  within  our  province  to  narrate  the 
political  conduct  of  Savonarola ;  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  in  acting  as  he  thought  for  the  good  of  his  country 
he  was  always  opposed  to  the  family  of  the  Medici.  The 
exiled  partisans  of  the  Medici  carried  their  complaints 
to  Rome,  where  they  were  favourably  received  ;  the  pope 
lent  a  willing  ear  to  accusations  against  his  most  formid- 
able adversary,  Savonarola.  He  was  now  doubly  ob- 
noxious as  the  political  favourer  of  the  French,  and  the 


SAVONAROLA.  349 

bold  denouncer  of  the  enormous  vices  of  the  pontifical 
court  and  family :  not  only  opposing  them  in  sermons, 
but  writing  to  the  emperor  and  the  King  of  Spain, 
representing  the  Church  as  falling  into  ruin,  and  en- 
treating the  convocation  of  a  general  council,  in  which 
he  undertook  to  prove  that  the  Church  was  without  a 
head,  since  he,  who  had  obtained  tlie  chair  of  St.  Peter 
by  bribery,  was  unworthy  not  only  of  his  high  dignity, 
but  of  the  name  of  Christian.  Copies  of  these  letters 
were  sent  to  Rome,  and  they  exasperated  Alexander  to 
the  utmost ;  rich,  clever,  and  a  pope,  he  could  not  fail  to 
have  a  party,  ami  found  the  Franciscans  willing  instru- 
ments of  vengeance  against  a  member  of  the  rival  order ; 
many  volunteered  a  service  more  applauded  and  better 
recompensed  at  Rome  than  any  other ;  but  there  was 
some  difficulty  in  finding  vulnerable  points  in  the  cha- 
racter of  Savonarola,  and  in  those  of  his  doctrines  which 
were  most  practically  obnoxious.  The  pope  sent  for  a 
learned  bishop,  and  said : — 

'*  I  wish  you  to  controvert  the  sermons  of  this  brother." 

Bishop. — "  Holy  father,  I  will  do  it ;  but  I  must  have 
arms  to  oppose  and  overcome  him." 

Pope. — "  How  arms?" 

Bishop. — "  This  brother  says  w^e  ought  not  to  keep 
concubines,  be  licentious,  or  commit  simony — he  says 
true  ;  what  can  I  answer  to  this  ?" 

Pope. — "  What  is  to  be  done  in  this  matter  ?" 

Bishop. — "Reward  him,  make  him  a  friend  by  honour- 
ing him  with  a  red  hat,  provided  he  leaves  off  prophe- 
sying, and  retracts  what  he  said." 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  a  learned  man,  Ludovrco, 
was  sent  to  Savonarola,  who  received  him  kindly,  and 
argued  with  him  three  days ;  Ludovico,  failing  to  con- 
vince by  reason,  offered  the  cardinalate,  which  Savona- 
rola refused,  and  invited  his  guest  to  hear  the  preaching 
next  morning,  when,  after  repeating  his  denunciations 
more  violently  than  ever,  he  declared  he  would  have  no 

VOL.  VIII.  H  H 


350  SAVONAROLA. 

other  red  hat  than  one  tinged  by  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrdom. The  messenger  returned  persuaded  that  the 
brother  was  indeed  a  true  servant  of  God. 

After  the  failure  of  this  lenient  measure,  the  pope 
first  silenced,  and  then  excommunicated  the  refractory 
monk,  causing  the  sentence  to  be  read  in  the  Duomo  of 
Florence  :  for  a  while  Savonarola  submitted,  and  relin- 
quished his  pulpit  to  Domenico  da  Pescia,  and  other 
friends  ;  he  hesitated  to  shake  off  an  authority  which 
had  long  been  the  cement  of  the  ecclesiastical  fabric, 
however  unjustly  it  was  now  exercised,  but  soon  he 
resumed  his  functions  in  defiance  of  the  pope's  mandate, 
affirming  that  he  knew  it  was  the  will  of  God  he  should 
not  submit  to  the  decisions  of  such  a  corrupt  tribunal, 
and  declared  that  he  should  be  condemned  of  God,  if 
ever  he  asked  absolution  for  this  resistance. 

In  this  proceeding  he  was  upheld  by  the  magistracy 
of  Florence,  as  appears  by  the  spirited  letter  they  sent 
to  Alexander. 

The  effect  of  Savonarola's  eloquence  and  especially 
of  his  preaching  was  wonderful  and  beneficial,  and  by 
success  he  was  morally  injured.  While  at  a  distance 
from  the  world  his  mind  had  been  open  to  the  reception 
of  all  truth,  he  had  listened  to  the  Word  of  God  almost 
exclusively,  and  learned  purer  doctrines  than  those  trans- 
mitted through  a  corrupt  Church,  doctrines  which  Luther 
continued  to  learn  with  a  mind  wholly  bent  on  theolo- 
gical investigation,  and  communicated  to  others  gradu- 
ally as  they  were  presented  to  himself;  but  Savonarola, 
with  only  an  imperfect  apprehension  of  them,  plunged 
into  the  temporal  affairs  of  men,  to  use  for  their  benefit 
the  little  knowledge  he  had  acquired,  and  amidst  the 
confusion  and  error  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  had 
much  difficulty  in  holding  fast  that  little,  and  no  leisure 
to  enlarge  his  store.  The  men  with  whom  he  was  neces- 
sarily associated  in  the  prosecution  of  his  designs  in- 
fected him  with  their  superstitions ;    the  injustice  and 


SAVONAROLA.  351 

opposition  he  encountered  disturbed  the  exercise  of  his 
cool  judgment ;  it  was  not  till  after  the  conclusion  of  his 
poHtical  career  that  he  advanced  again  beyond  his  times, 
and  left  behind  both  the  world  and  the  Church  of  Kome 
in  his  nearer  approach  to  Divine  Truth. 

Exhausted  by  fatigue,  abstinence,  and  incessant  emo- 
tion, Savonarola  fell  sick  and  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  public  duties,  and  commit  the  exposition  of  his 
doctrines  principally  to  Domenico  da  Pescia,  whose  zeal 
outran  his  judgment ;  he  appears  to  have  interrupted 
his  master's  expression  of  confidence  in  God,  "  Who," 
he  said  "  would,  if  necessary,  enable  him  to  pass  unhurt 
through  the  fire,"  into  an  appeal  to  miracles  in  support 
of  his  doctrine ;  and  though  repeatedly  warned  not  to 
give  way  to  a  wild  imagination,  he  suffered  himself  to 
be  so  far  transported  in  the  heat  of  declamation  as  to 
accept  a  challenge  thrown  out  by  a  monk  of  the  Minor 
Observantines,  and  refer  the  decision  between  their  re- 
spective opinions  to  the  result  of  an  ordeal  fire  !  This 
barbarous  proposition  had  not  hitherto  been  noticed  by 
Savonarola,  who  always  denied  that  it  originated  with 
him  or  his  party.  The  turbulent  and  divided  multitude 
gladly  caught  at  the  promise  of  a  spectacle,  and  the 
magistrates,  some  of  one  party  and  some  of  another, 
agreed  to  try  this  mode  of  ascertaining  the  truth,  though 
there  were  some  who  either  moved  by  humanity,  or  as 
one  might  suppose,  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  ridicule 
upon  the  whole  affair,  affirmed  that  it  would  be  quite 
as  satisfactory,  and  much  less  cruel,  if  the  two  monks 
were  immersed  in  a  tub  of  water  (for  their  greater  com- 
fort w^arm  water,)  and  he  who  came  out  dry  was  to  be 
considered  the  conqueror. 

A  day  was  appointed  for  the  trial.  Savonarola  with 
his  champion,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  procession, 
appeared  at  the  place,  and  thundered  out  the  psalm 
"  Let  the  Lord  arise  and  scatter  his  enemies."  The 
Franciscan  came ;  the  flames  were  kindled ;  when  Savo- 


852  SCHWARTZ. 

narola,  finding  that  the  adverse  party  was  not  to  be  inti-' 
midated,  proposed  that  Domenico  should  be  allowed  to 
carry  the  host  with  him  into  the  fire.  This  was  ex- 
claimed against  by  the  whole  assembly  as  an  impious 
and  sacrilegious  proposal.  It  was,  however,  insisted 
upon  by  Domenico,  who  thereby  eluded  the  ordeal.  But 
the  result  was  fatal  to  the  credit  of  Savonarola.  The 
populace  insulted  and  turned  against  him.  His  enemies, 
after  a  sharp  conflict,  apprehended  him,  with  Domenico 
and  another  friar,  and  dragged  them  to  prison.  An 
assembly  of  ecclesiastics,  directed  by  two  emissaries  from 
Eome,  sat  in  judgment  upon  them.  The  resolution  and 
eloquence  of  Savonarola  disconcerted  his  judges  at  the 
first  examination ;  but  upon  the  application  of  torture, 
his  constancy  gave  way,  and  he  acknowledged  the  impos- 
ture of  his  pretending  to  supernatural  powers.  He  and 
his  companions  were  condemned  to  be  first  strangled  and 
then  burnt,  and  the  sentence  was  put  in  execution  on 
the  23rd  of  May,  1498,  before  an  immense  crowd  of 
spectators,  a  part  of  whom  still  venerated  him  as  a  saint 
and  martyr,  while  the  rest  execrated  him  as  a  hypocrite 
and  seducer. — Life  and  Times  of  Savonarola.  Foreign 
Quarterly. 


SCHWARTZ,    CHRISTIAN    FREDERICK. 

This  illustrious  man  and  distinguished  missionary  was 
born  at  Sonnenburg,  in  the  province  of  Bradenburg, 
in  1726.  He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Halle, 
and  there  formed  his  resolution  to  engage  in  missionary 
labour.  Having  determined  to  make  India  the  seat  of 
his  ministry,  he  sailed  for  Tranquebar,  on  the  Coroman- 
del  coast,  in  1750,  to  superintend  the  Danish  Mission. 
In  1766,  he  became  one  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  to  which  the  Danish 
mission  was  afterwards  transferred.     He  removed  first  to 


SCOT.  353 

Trinchinopoly,  and  afterwards  to  Tanjore.  He  also  went 
on  a  successful  embassy  from  the  presidency  of  Madras 
to  Hyder  Ali  at  Seringapatam  ;  and  in  1783,  he,  through 
the  influence  of  his  high  moral  reputation,  saved  Tanjore, 
then  besieged  by  Hyder's  troops,  from  the  horrors  of 
famine.  In  1785,  he  engaged  in  a  scheme  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools  throughout  the  country  for  the  pur- 
pose of  teaching  the  natives  the  English  language,  which 
was  carried  into  effect  at  Tanjore  and  other  places.  In 
1787,  the  Raja  of  Tanjore  confided  to  the  care  of  Schwartz 
his  successor  Maha  Sarbojee,  a  minor,  who,  some  years 
afterwards,  manifested  his  fihal  affection  for  his  tutor 
and  protector  by  erecting  a  monument,  by  Flaxman,  to 
his  memory  in  the  mission  church  at  Tanjore.  Schwartz 
died  February  13th,  1798. 


SCOT,    OR,    ROTHEEHAM,    THOMAS. 

Thomas  Scot,  alias  Rotherham,  a  munificent  bene- 
factor to  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  was  born  at  Rotherham, 
in  Yorkshire,  from  whence  he  took  his  name,  but  that 
of  his  family  appears  to  have  been  Scot.  He  rose  by  his 
talents  and  learning  to  the  highest  ranks  in  Church  and 
State,  having  been  successively  fellow  of  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  master  of  Pembroke  Hall,  chancellor  of  that 
university,  prebendary  of  Sarum,  chaplain  to  King  Ed- 
ward IV.,  provost  of  Beverley,  keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal, 
secretary  to  four  kings,  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  Lincoln, 
Archbishop  of  York,  and  lord-chancellor.  His  buildings 
at  Cambridge,  Whitehall,  Southwell,  and  Thorp,  are 
eminent  proofs  of  his  magnificent  taste  and  spirit. 

He  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Lincoln  in  1471,  and 
we  learn  from  his  preface  to  his  body  of  statutes,  that  a 
visit  through  his  diocese,  in  which  Oxford  then  was, 
proved  the  occasion  of  his  liberality  to  Lincoln  College. 
On  his  arrival  there,  in  1474,  John  Tristroppe,  the  third 
h  H  3 


354  SCOTT. 

rector  of  that  society,  preached  the  visitation  sermon 
from  Psalm  Ixxx.  14,  15  : — "  Behold  and  visit  this  vine, 
and  the  vine-yard  which  thy  right  hand  hath  planted, 
<&c."  In  this  discourse,  which,  as  usual,  was  delivered  in 
Latin,  the  preacher  addressed  his  particular  requests  to 
the  bishop,  exhorting  him  to  complete  his  college,  now 
imperfect  and  defective  both  in  buildings  and  govern- 
ment. Rotherham  is  said  to  have  been  so  well  pleased 
with  the  application  of  the  text  and  subject,  that  he 
stood  up  and  declared  that  he  would  do  what  was  desired. 
Accordingly,  besides  what  he  contributed  to  the  build- 
ings, he  increased  the  number  of  fellows  from  seven  to 
twelve,  and  gave  them  the  livings  of  Twyford  in  Buck- 
inghamshire, and  Long  Combe  in  Oxfordshire.  He 
formed  also  in  1479,  a  body  of  statutes,  in  which,  after 
noticing  with  an  apparent  degree  of  displeasure,  that 
although  Oxford  was  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  no  col- 
lege had  yet  made  provision  for  the  natives  of  that  dio- 
cese, he  enjoined  that  the  rector  should  be  of  the  Diocese 
of  Lincoln  or  York,  and  the  fellows  or  scholars  should 
be  persons  born  in  the  Dioceses  of  Lincoln  and  York, 
and  one  of  Wells,  with  a  preference,  as  to  those  from  the 
diocese  of  York,  to  his  native  parish  of  Rotherham.  This 
prelate  died  in  1500  at  Cawood,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Mary,  under  a  marble  tomb  which  he  had 
built. — Chalmers. 


SCOTT,    JOHN. 

John  Scott  was  born  at  Chippenham,  in  Wiltshire,  in 
1638.  He  was  originally  intended  for  trade,  but  after- 
wards went  to  New  Inn  Hall,  Oxford,  where  he  matricu- 
lated in  1657.  When  ordained  he  came  to  London, 
where  he  officiated  in  the  perpetual  curacy  of  Trinity  in 
the  Minories,  and  as  Minister  of  St.  Thomas's,  in  South- 
wark.     In  1677,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  of  St, 


SCOTT.  355 

Peter  Le  Poor,  in  Old  Broad-street :  and  was  collated  to 
a  prebend  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  in  1684.  In  1685, 
he  accumulated  the  degrees  of  bachelor  and  doctor  in 
divinity. 

His  great  work  was  the  Christian  Life.  The  first  part 
was  published  in  1681,  8vo,  with  this  title,  *'  The  Christian 
Life,  from  its  beginning  to  its  consummation  in  Glory, 
together  with  the  several  means  and  instruments  of 
Christianity  conducing  thereunto,  with  directions  for 
private  devotion  and  forms  of  prayer,  fitted  to  the  several 
states  of  Christians;"  in  1685,  another  part,  "wherein 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Christian  duty  are  as- 
signed, explained,  and  proved;"  in  1686,  another  part, 
"  wherein  the  doctrine  of  our  Saviour's  meditation  is 
explained  and  proved."  This  admirable  work  was 
strongly  recommended  to  students  of  divinity  by  the  late 
Dr.  Lloyd,  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

When  Popery  was  encroaching  under  Charles  XL  and 
James  II.  he  was  one  of  those  champions  who  opposed  it 
with  great  warmth  and  courage,  particularly  in  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  sermon  preached  at  Guildhall  Chapel,  Nov. 
5,  1683,  to  Sir  William  Hooker,  lord-mayor  of  London, 
in  which  he  declares  that  "  Domitian  and  Dioclesian 
were  but  puny  persecutors  and  bunglers  in  cruelty,  com- 
pared with  the  infallible  cut-throats  of  the  apostolical 
chair." 

After  the  Revolution,  he  was  offered  the  Bishopric  of 
Chester,  which  he  refused  from  scruples  about  the  Oath 
of  Homage,  as  he  did  afterwards  another  bishopric,  the 
Deanery  of  Worcester,  and  a  prebend  of  Windsor,  because 
they  were  the  places  of  persons  who  had  been  deprived. 
In  1691,  he  succeeded  Sharp,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
York,  in  the  Rectory  of  St.  Giles-in-the-Fields  ;  and  in 
the  same  year  he  was  made  canon  of  Windsor.  He  died 
in  1694.  Besides  the  Christian  Life,  he  published  also 
Examination  of  Bellarmine's  Eighth  Note  concerning 
Sanctity  of   Doctrine;     The    Texts    Examined,    which 


356  SCOQGAL. 

Papists  cite  out  of  the  Bible  concerning  Prayer  in  an 
Unknown  Tongue  ;  Certain  Cases  of  Conscience  resolved, 
concerning  the  lawfulness  of  joining  with  Forms  of 
Prayer  in  public  worship  ;  A  Collection  of  Cases  and 
other  discourses  lately  written,  to  recover  Dissenters 
to  the  Communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  1685, 
4to.  All  his  works  were  published  in  2  vols.,  folio, 
1104:.— Wood.    Biog.  Diet. 


SCOUGAL,    HENRY. 

This  admirable  writer,  whose  works  still  live,  and  which 
found  an  editor  of  late  years  in  the  late  incomparable 
Bishop  Jebb,  did  much  in  a  short  time,  since  he  was 
called  to  his  reward  in  his  twenty- seventh  year.  Of  a  life 
so  short,  little  is  known.  He  was  born  in  June,  1650,  at 
Salton,  in  East  Lothian,  and  was  son  of  the  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen.  In  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  he  received 
his  education,  and  so  distinguished  himself,  that  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  he  was  enabled  to  fill  the  office  of 
professor  of  philosophy,  with  honour  to  himself  and 
with  profit  to  his  pupils. 

He  maintained  his  authority  among  the  students  in 
such  a  way  as  to  keep  them  in  awe,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  gain  their  love  and  esteem.  Sunday  evenings 
were  spent  with  his  scholars  in  discoursing  of,  and 
encouraging  religion  in  principle  and  practice.  He 
allotted  a  considerable  part  of  his  yearly  income  for 
the  poor;  and  many  indigent  families  of  different 
persuasions,  were  relieved  in  their  difficulties  by  his 
bounty,  although  so  secretly  that  they  knew  not  whence 
their  supply  came. 

Having  been  a  professor  of  philosophy  for  four  years, 
he  was  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  admitted  into  holy 
orders,  and  settled  at  Auchterless,  a  small  village  about 
twenty  miles  from  Aberdeen.     Here  his  zeal  and  ability 


SCOUGAL.  35t 

in  his  great  Master's  service  were  eminently  displayed. 
He  catechised  with  great  plainness  and  affection,  and 
used  the  most  endearing  methods  to  recommend  religion 
to  his  hearers.  He  endeavoured  to  bring  them  to  a  close 
attendance  on  public  worship,  and  joined  with  them 
himself  at  the  beginning  of  it.  He  revived  the  use  of 
lectures,  looking  upon  it  as  very  edifying  to  comment 
upon  and  expound  large  portions  of  Scripture.  In  the 
twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
divinity  in  the  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  which  he  at 
first  declined,  but  when  induced  to  accept  it,  he  applied 
himself  with  zeal  and  diligence  to  the  exercise  of  this 
office.  After  he  had  guarded  his  pupils  against  the 
common  artifices  of  the  Roman  missionaries  in  making 
proselytes,  he  proposed  two  subjects  for  public  exercise  : 
the  one,  of  the  pastoral  care,  the  other,  of  casuistical 
divinity. 

The  inward  dispositions  of  this  excellent  man,  are 
best  seen  in  his  writings,  to  which  his  pious  and  blame- 
less life  was  wholly  conformable.  His  days,  however, 
were  soon  numbered  ;  in  the  twenty- seventh  year  of  his 
age,  he  fell  into  a  consumption,  which  wasted  him  by 
slow  degrees  ;  but  during  the  whole  time  of  his  sickness 
he  behaved  with  the  utmost  resignation,  nor  did  he 
ever  show  the  least  impatience.  He  died  June  20, 
]778,  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  was 
buried  in  King's  College  Church,  in  Old  Aberdeen. 
His  principal  work  is  entitled  *'  The  Life  of  God  in 
the  Soul  of  Man,"  which  has  undergone  many  editions, 
and  has  been  thought  alike  valuable  for  the  sublime 
spirit  of  piety  which  it  breathes,  and  for  the  purity 
and  elegance  of  its  style.  He  left  his  books  to  the  library 
of  his  college,  and  five  thousand  marks  to  the  office  of 
professor  of  divinity.  He  composed  a  form  of  morning 
and  evening  service  for  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Aber- 
deen, which  may  be  seen  in  Orem's  Description  of  the 
Canonry   of  Old  Aberdeen,   printed  in  No.  3.  of  the 


358  SECKER. 

Bibliotheca  Topographica  Britannica."  His  treatise  on 
the  "  Life  of  God,"  &c,  was  first  printed  in  his  hfe-time 
by  Bishop  Burnet  about  1677,  without  a  name,  which 
the  author's  modesty  studiously  concealed.  It  went 
through  several  subsequent  editions,  and  was  patro- 
nised by  the  Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge, 
and  was  reprinted  in  1786,  with  the  addition  of  •'  Nine 
Discourses  on  important  subjects,"  by  the  same  author, 
and  his  Funeral  Sermon,  by  Dr.  G.  G. — EncyclopcEdia 
Perthensis.    Bihl.  Topog.  Britan. 


SECKER,    THOMAS. 

Of  this  prelate,  Pope  said,  **  Seeker  is  decent ;"  and 
decent  and  decorous  he  was,  without  excellence,  in 
every  department  of  life.  He  was  respectable  as  a 
scholar,  as  a  divine,  as  a  writer,  as  a  parish  priest 
and  as  a  bishop.  And  he  lived  at  a  period  when  a 
government  hostile  to  the  Church,  looked  out  for  res- 
pectable mediocrity,  to  fill  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
stations.  He  was  born  in  1693,  at  Sibthorpe,  in  the 
Vale  of  Belvoir,  in  Nottinghamshire.  His  parents  were 
dissenters,  and  he  was  educated  for  the  dissenting 
ministry.  But  having  perceived  the  errors  of  dissenting 
principles,  he  declined  to  officiate  in  the  capacity  of  a 
minister,  although  with  his  usual  cautious  moderation 
he  abstained  from  declaring  himself  a  Churchman.  In 
1716,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  physic,  both 
in  London  and  at  Paris.  He  had  been  acquainted  with 
the  celebrated  Joseph  Butler  when  he  was  at  a  Dis- 
senting School,  at  Tewksbury,  and  while  at  Paris  he 
received  an  offer  from  Butler,  now  preacher  at  the  Rolls, 
to  obtain  for  him  a  preferment  in  the  Church  of 
England,  if  he  would  conform.  He  was  enabled  to 
make  the  offer  through  his  intimacy  with  Mr.  Edward 
Talbot,  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham,     Seeker  acceded 


SECKER.  869 

to  the  proposal,  and  proceeding  with  his  usual  regard  to 
propriety,  took  his  medical  degree  at  Leyden,  in  1721, 
and,  entering  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  received  a 
degree  by  diploma  at  that  university  after  a  year's 
residence. 

Having  been  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  his 
progress  was  rapid.  He  was  made  chaplain  to  Bishop 
Talbot ;  he  had  the  living  of  Hough ton-le- Spring,  which 
he  exchanged  in  1727  for  that  of  Ryton,  and  a  prebend 
of  Durham ;  in  1 732,  he  was  nominated  one  pf  the 
king's  chaplains,  and  in  the  following  year  Hector  of  St. 
James's,  Piccadilly.  In  that  year  he  went  to  Oxford 
to  take  his  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  (not  being  of  sutfi- 
cient  standing  for  that  of  divinity.)  On  this  occasion  he 
preached  his  celebrated  Act  Sermon,  on  the  advantages 
and  duties  of  academical  education,  which  was  printed 
at  the  desire  of  the  heads  of  houses,  and  quickly  passed 
through  several  editions.  .  Early  in  1  735,  he  was  made 
Bishop  of  Bristol.  In  1737,  he  was  translated  to 
Oxford.  In  1750,  he  gave  up  the  Rectory  of  St.  James's, 
and  his  Durham  prebend,  and  was  made  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's.     In  1758,  he  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Bishop  Porteus  observes,  that  when  translated  to 
the  Metropolitan  See,  all  designs  and  institutions  that 
tended  to  advance  good  morals  and  true  religion,  he 
patronized  with  zeal  and  generosity.  He  contributed 
largely  to  the  maintenance  of  schools  for  the  poor,  to 
rebuilding  or  repairing  parsonage  houses  and  places  of 
worship,  and  gave  at  one  time  no  less  than  £500 
towards  erecting  a  chapel  in  the  Parish  of  Lambeth, 
to  which  he  afterwards  added  near  d6 100  more.  To  the 
Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge  he  was  a 
liberal  benefactor,  and  to  that  for  propagating  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts,  of  which  he  was  the  president, 
he  paid  much  attention  ;  was  constant  at  all  the  meetings 
of  its  members,  (even  sometimes  when  his  health  would 
ill  permit  it,)  and  superintended  their  deliberations  with 


360  SECKER. 

consummate  prudence  and  temper.  He  was  sincerely 
desirous  to  improve  to  the  utmost  that  excellent  insti- 
tution, and  to  diffuse  the  knowledge  and  belief  of 
Christianity  as  wide  as  the  revenues  of  the  society, 
and  the  extreme  difficulty  of  establishing  schools  and 
missions  amongst  the  Indians,  and  of  making  any 
effectual  and  durable  impressions  of  religion  on  their 
uncivilized  minds,  would  admit.  But  Dr.  Mayhew,  of 
Boston,  in  New  England,  having  in  an  angry  pamphlet 
accused  the  society  of  not  sufficiently  answering  these 
good  purposes,  and  of  departing  widely  from  the  spirit 
of  their  charter;  with  many  injurious  reflections  inter- 
spersed on  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  design  of 
appointing  bishops  in  America;  his  grace  on  all  these 
accounts  thought  himself  called  upon  to  confute  his 
invectives,  which  he  did  in  a  short  anonymous  piece, 
entitled.  An  Answer  to  Dr.  Mayhew's  Observations  on 
the  Charter  and  Conduct  of  the  Society  for  propagating 
the  Gospel ;  printed  for  Rivington,  1764,  and  reprinted  in 
America.  The  strength  of  argument,  as  well  as  fairness 
and  good  temper,  with  which  this  Answer  was  written, 
had  a  considerable  effect  on  all  impartial  men,  and  even 
on  the  doctor  himself,  who  plainly  perceived  that  he  had 
no  common  adversary  to  deal  with ;  and  could  not  help 
acknowledging  him  to  be  "a  person  of  excellent  sense, 
and  a  happy  talent  at  writing ;  apparently  free  from  the 
sordid  illiberal  spirit  of  bigotry;  one  of  a  cool  temper, 
who  often  shewed  much  candour,  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  affairs  of  the  society,  and  in  general  a  fair  rea- 
soner."  He  was  therefore  so  far  wrought  upon  by  his 
*'  worthy  answerer,"  as  to  abate  much  in  his  Reply  of 
his  former  warmth  and  acrimony.  But  as  he  still  would 
not  allow  himself  to  be  "wrong  in  any  material  point," 
nor  forbear  giving  way  too  much  to  reproachful  language 
and  ludicrous  representations,  he  was  again  animad- 
verted upon  by  Mr.  Apthorpe,  in  a  sensible  Tract, 
entitled,    "A  Review  of  Dr.  Mayhew's  Remarks,"  &c., 


SECKER.  361 

printed  also  for  Rivington,  in  1765.  This  put  an  end 
to  the  dispute.  The  doctor  on  reading  it  declared  he 
should  not  answer  it,  and  the  following  year  he  died. 

It  appeared  evidently  in  the  course  of  this  controversy, 
that  Dr.  Mayhew,  and  probably  many  other  worthy 
men  amongst  the  Dissenters  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
had  conceived  very  unreasonable  and  groundless  jea- 
lousies of  the  Church  of  England,  and  its  governors ; 
and  had  in  particular  greatly  misunderstood  the  pro- 
posal for  appointing  bishops  in  some  of  the  Colonies. 
TJie  chief  reasons  for  desiring  an  establishment  of  this 
nature,  were,  the  want  of  persons  vested  with  proper 
authority,  to  administer  to  the  members  of  the  Church 
of  England  the  ancient  and  useful  office  of  confirmation  ; 
to  superintend  the  conduct  of  the  episcopal  clergy ;  and 
to  save  candidates  for  the  ministry  the  trouble,  cost,  and 
hazard  of  coming  to  England  for  ordination.  It  was 
alleged,  that  the  expence  of  crossing  the  Atlantic  for 
that  purpose  could  not  be  less  than  £100,  that  near  a 
fifth  part  of  those  w^ho  took  that  voyage  had  actually 
lost  their  lives ;  and  that  in  consequence  of  these  dis- 
couragements, one  half  of  the  Churches  in  several  pro- 
vinces were  destitute  of  clergymen.  Common  humanity, 
as  well  as  common  justice,  pleaded  strongly  for  a  remedy 
to  these  evils ;  and  there  appeared  to  be  no  other  eflPec- 
tual  remedy  but  the  appointment  of  one  or  more  bishops 
in  some  of  the  episcopal  Colonies.  The  danger  and 
inconveniences,  which  the  Dissenters  seemed  to  appre- 
hend from  that  measure,  were  thought  to  be  effectually 
guarded  against  by  the  mode  of  appointment  which  was 
proposed.  What  that  mode  was,  may  be  seen  in  the 
following  extract  from  the  archbishop's  Answer  to  Dr. 
Mayhew,  in  which  he  explains  concisely  and  clearly  the 
only  plan  for  such  an  establishment  that  was  ever  meant 
to  be  carried  into  execution. 

"  The  Church  of  England  is,  in  its  constitution,  epis- 
copal.    It  is,  in  some  of  the  Plantations,  confessedly  the 

VOL.  VIII  J    I 


362  .  SECKER. 

established  Church  ;  in  the  rest  are  many  congregations 
adhering  to  it ;  and  through  the  late  extension  of  the 
British  dominions,  it  is  likely  that  there  will  be  more. 
All  members  of  every  Church  are,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  liberty,  entitled  to  every  part  of  what  they 
conceive  to  be  the  benefits  of  it,  entire  and  complete, 
so  far  as  consists  with  the  welfare  of  civil  government. 
Yet  the  members  of  our  Church  in  America  do  not  thus 
enjoy  its  benefits,  having  no  Protestant  bishop  within 
three  thousand  miles  of  them  ;  a  case  which  never  had 
its  parallel  before  in  the  Christian  world.  Therefore 
it  is  desired  that  two  or  more  bishops  may  be  appointed 
for  them,  to  reside  where  his  majesty  shall  think  most 
convenient;  that  they  may  have  no  concern  in  the  least 
with  any  persons  who  do  not  profess  themselves  to  be  of 
the  Church  of  England,  but  may  ordain  ministers  for 
such  as  do;  may  confirm  their  children  when  brought 
to  them  at  a  fit  age  for  that  purpose ;  and  take  such 
oversight  of  the  episcopal  clergy,  as  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don's commissaries  in  those  parts  have  been  empowered 
to  take,  and  have  taken  without  offence.  But  it  is  not 
desired  in  the  least  that  they  should  hold  courts  to  try 
matrimonial  or  testamentary  causes ;  or  be  vested  with 
any  authority  now  exercised,  either  by  provincial  gover- 
nors, or  subordinate  magistrates  ;  or  infringe  or  diminish 
any  privileges  or  liberties  enjoyed  by  any  of  the  laity, 
even  of  our  own  communion.  This  is  the  real  and 
the  only  scheme  that  hath  been  planned  for  bishops  in 
America ;  and  whosoever  hath  heard  of  any  other,  hath 
been  misinformed  through  mistake  or  design.  And  as 
to  the  place  of  their  residence,"  his  grace  further  de- 
clares, "that  it  neither  is,  nor  ever  was  intended  or 
desired  to  fix  one  in  New  England  ;  but  that  episcopal 
colonies  have  always  been  proposed." 

The  doctor  on  reading  this  account  confessed  that,  if 
it  were  the  true  one,  "he  had  been  misinformed  himself, 
Stud  knew  of  others  who  had  been  so  in  common  with 


SECKER.  363 

him;  and  that  if  such  a  scheme  as  this  were  carried 
into  execution,  and  only  such  consequences  were  to 
follow,  as  the  proposer  had  professedly  in  view,  he  could 
not  object  against  it,  except  on  the  same  principle  that 
he  should  object  against  the  Church  of  England  in 
general." 

As  it  came  however  from  an  unknown  writer,  he 
thought  himself  at  liberty  to  consider  it  as  nothing  more 
than  the  imaginary  scheme  of  '.a  private  man,  till  it  was 
confirmed  by  better  authority.  It  now  appears  to  have 
come  from  the  best  authority,  and  it  is  certain  that  this 
mode  of  establishing  bishops  in  xlmerica,  was  not  in- 
vented merely  "to  serve  a  present  turn,"  being  precisely 
the  same  with  that  proposed  by  Bishop  Butler  twenty 
years  ago;  and  with  that  mentioned  by  his  grace,  in 
his  Letter  to  the  Right  Honourable  Horatio  Walpole, 
written  when  he  was  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  published 
since  his  death  by  his  executors,  Mrs.  Catherine  Talbot, 
and  Dr.  Daniel  Burton;  in  which  the  whole  affair  is  set 
in  a  right  point  of  view,  his  own  sentiments  upon  it 
more  fully  explained,  and  an  answet  given  to  the  chief 
objections  against  such  a  proposal. 

Bishop  Porteus  remarks,  "  It  is  a  very  remarkable 
circumstance,  and  a  complete  justification  of  the  arch- 
bishop's sentiments  and  conduct  on  the  subject  of  an 
American  episcopacy,  that  notwithstanding  the  violent 
opposition  to  that  measure  when  he  espoused  it,  yet  no 
sooner  did  the  American  Provinces  become  independent 
States,  than  application  was  made  to  the  English  bishops 
by  some  of  those  States,  to  consecrate  bishops  for  them 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.  And 
accordingly  three  bishops  were  actually  consecrated  here 
some  years  ago,  one  for  Pensylvania,  another  for  New 
York,  and  a  third  for  Virginia." 

He  died  in  1768,  and  was  buried  in  the  church-yard 
of  Lambeth  parish.  He  expended  upwards  of  £300  in 
arranging  and  improving  the  MS.  library  at  Lambeth. 


364  SEDGWICK. 

He  also  made  it  bis  business  to  collect  books  in  all 
languages  from  most  parts  of  Europe,  at  a  great  expense, 
and  left  them  to  the  library  at  his  death.  The  greatest 
part  of  his  noble  collection  of  books  he  bequeathed  to 
the  archiepiscopal  library  of  Lambeth.  To  the  MS. 
library  there  he  left  a  large  number  of  valuable  MSS. 
written  by  himself  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  critical 
and  theological.  His  well  known  Catechetical  Lectures, 
and  his  MS.  sermons,  hg  left  to  be  revised  by  his  two 
chaplains,  Dr.  Stinton  and  Dr.  Porteus,  by  whom  they 
were  published  in  1770. 


SEDGWICK,    OBADIAH. 

Obadiah  Sedgwick  was  born  at  Marlborough,  in  Wilt- 
shire, in  1000,  and  educated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford; 
after  which  he  obtained  the  Vicarage  of  Coggeshall,  in 
Essex;  but  in  the  rebellion  he  removed  to  London,  and 
was  chosen  preacher  at  St.  Paul's,  Covent-garden,  and  a 
member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines. 

Wood  says,  "  that  while  he  preached  at  Mildred's, 
which  was  only  to  exasperate  the  people  to  rebel  and 
confound  episcopacy,  it  was  usual  with  him,  especially 
in  hot  weather,  to  unbutton  his  doublet  in  the  pulpit, 
that  his  breath  might  be  the  longer,  and  his  voice  more 
audible,  to  rail  against  the  king's  party,  and  those  who 
were  near  him,  whom  he  cdWed  popish  counsellors.''  The 
same  author  adds,  "  He  was  a  great  leader  and  abettor 
of  the  Reformation  pretended  to  be  carried  on  by  the 
Presbyterians ;  whose  peaceable  maxims,  like  razors  set 
with  oil,  cut  the  throat  of  majesty  with  a  keen  smooth- 
ness. This  he  did  in  an  especial  manner,  in  Sept ,  1644, 
when  he,  with  great  concernment,  told  the  people  several 
times,  that  God  was  angry  with  the  army  for  not  cutting 
off  delinquents.'" 

It  has  also  been  said,   that  Mr.   Sedgwick  was  "  a 


SEED.  365 

preacher  of  treason,  rebellion,  and  nonsense,"  even  in 
his  sermons  before  the  parliament. 

In  1653,  or  1654,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  tryers 
or  examiners  of  ministers ;  and  soon  after  one  of  the 
commissioners  of  London  for  ejecting  "  ignorant  and 
scandalous  ministers,"  that  is,  orthodox  and  pious 
divines.  These  Covenanters  who  were  so  loud  in  their 
clamour  when,  at  the  Restoration  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  were  restored  to  their  property,  not 
only  ousted  them  when  they  had  the  power,  but  ma- 
ligned and  misrepresented  them  as  some  of  their  suc- 
cessors are  still  accustomed  to  do. 

He  died  in  1658.  He  pubHshed :— The  Fountain 
Opened ;  An  Exposition  of  Psalm  xxiii. ;  The  Anatomy 
of  Secret  Sins ;  The  Parable  of  the  Prodigal ;  Synopsis 
of  Christianity;  and  other  works  long  since  for- 
gotten, the  list  of  which  occupies  more  than  a  page 
in  Pteid's  History  of  the  Westminster  Divines.— TFoorf. 
Reid. 


SEED,    JEREMIAH. 

Little  is  known  of  the  life  of  this  very  clear  headed  and 
learned  divine,  whose  writings  stand  next  perhaps  to  those 
of  Dr.  Waterland  in  the  controversies  of  the  last  century. 
He  was  born  at  Clifton,  near  Penrith,  in  Cumberland, 
and  educated  at  Lowther,  and  at  Queen's  College, 
Oxford,  of  which  he  was  chosen  fellow  in  1732.  The 
greatest  part  of  his  life  was  spent  at  Twickenham,  where 
he  was  curate  to  Dr.  Waterland.  In  1741,  he  was 
presented  by  his  college  to  the  living  of  Enham,  in 
Hampshire,  where  he  died  in  1747. 

He  published  :  —  Discourses  on  several  important 
Subjects,  2  vols.  8vo ;  his  Posthumous  Works,  con- 
sisting of  Sermons,  Letters,  Essays,  &c.,  in  2  vols.  8vo, 
were  published  in  1750. 

3  II 


366  SHARP. 


SERARIUS,    NICHOLAS. 

Nicholas  Seraeius  was  born  at  Rambemlliers,  in  Lor- 
raine, in  1555.  He  studied  at  Cologne,  and  there 
became  a  Jesuit.  He  died  at  Mentz,  in  1609.  His 
collected  works  were  published  in  Mentz,  in  three  tomes, 
fol.  Of  these,  the  most  esteemed  w^ere  : — Commentaries 
on  several  Books  of  Scripture :  Prolegomena  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  Trihseresium,  seu  de  celeberrimis 
tribus,  apud  Judaeos,  Pharisaeorum,  Sadducaeorum,  et 
Essenorum  Sectis ;  an  edition  of  this  work  was  pub- 
lished at  Delft,  in  1703,  with  the  addition  of  the  trea- 
tises of  Drusius  and  Scalier,  on  the  same  subject ;  De 
rebus  Moguntinis. — Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 


SHARP,    JAMES. 

James  Sharp  was  born  in  1618,  at  Banff  Castle,  Banff- 
shire, and  was  educated  at  King's  College,  Aberdeen. 
In  1638,  he  fled  from  persecution  and  retired  to  Eng- 
land, being  expelled  from  his  college  for  refusing  to  take 
the  Covenant.  Although  he  was  only  twenty  years  of 
age,  his  merit  was  such  that  he  attracted  the  kindly 
notice  of  such  men  as  Saunderson,  Hammond,  and 
Jeremy  Taylor.  He  did  not  remain  long  in  England, 
but  was  driven  back  to  his  native  air  by  severe  indis- 
position. Through  the  interest  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes, 
he  was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  at  St.  Leo- 
nard's College,  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrew's.  He 
resigned  the  professorship  soon  after,  and  retired  to  the 
living  of  Crail. 

Sharp  was  more  of  a  politician  than  a  divine,  and 
though  he  preferred  episcopacy  as  a  form  of  Church 
government,  and  even  avowed  his  predilection  to  Crom- 
well, yet  he  did  not  consider  it  as  a  necessary  or  divine 


SHAEP.  367 

institution.  There  seems,  therefore,  to  have  been  very 
little  inconsistency  in  his  conduct  either  in  holding  office 
under  the  Presbytery,  or  in  being  instrumental  in  the 
re-establishment  of  episcopacy. 

The  Presbyterians  were  at  this  time  divided  into  two 
parties,  the  Remonstrators  or  Protestors,  and  the  Resolu- 
tioners.  To  account  for  the  origin  of  the  two  parties 
we  must  look  back  to  the  year  1688,  when  a  General 
Assembly,  called  by  Charles  I.,  became  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  refused  to  rise  when  legally  dissolved  by 
the  king.  This  illegal  assembly  condemned  the  Liturgy 
— Book  of  Canons — Book  of  Ordination — and  the  Court 
of  High  Commission.  It  repealed  all  the  acts  of  Assem- 
bly for  the  preceding  forty  years ;  condemned,  deposed, 
and  excommunicated  the  bishops,  as  an  Anti-christian 
corruption;  declared  them  infamous,  and  worse  than 
heathens  and  publicans.  It  refused  to  rise  when  dis- 
solved by  the  king's  commissioner ;  but,  indeed,  all  the 
succeeding  parliaments  and  assemblies  both  met  and 
enacted  laws  contrary  to  the  royal  authority.  At  that 
period,  the  General  Assembly  exalted  itself  above  the 
crown  and  parliament,  and  actually  repealed  acts  of 
parliament.  A  new  oath  was  invented,  called  the 
Solemn,  League  and  Covenant,  and  imposed,  contrary 
to  all  law,  upon  all  men  and  women,  and  even  children 
were  compelled  to  take  it ;  and  such  as  refused  were  ex- 
communicated. The  consequence  of  excommunication  in 
Scotland,  at  that  time,  was  the  confiscation  of  all  their 
moveables,  and  that  their  persons  were  placed  beyond 
the  protection  of  the  laws.  The  lives  of  the  bishops, 
therefore,  were  now  at  the  mercy  of  every  man  who  might 
lift  their  hands  against  them,  to  avoid  which  they  fled 
to  England.  Such  was  the  unhappy  posture  of  Charles's 
affairs,  that  he  found  himself  under  the  necessity  of 
ratifying  their  illegal  acts  of  assembly,  in  the  parliament 
of  1641.  By  that  mutilated  and  illegal  parliament, 
episcopacy  was  abolished,  and  the  Presbyterian  system 


368  SHARP. 

established.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
sworn  by  the  now  dominant  Presbyterians,  and  all  men 
forced  to  comply  with  it ;  the  object  of  which  was  to 
"  endeavour  the  extirpation  of  Popery,  Prelacy,  (that  is 
Church  government  by  archbishops,  bishops,  their  chan- 
cellors and  commissaries,  deans,  deans  and  chapters, 
archdeacons,  and  all  other  ecclesiastical  officers  depend- 
ing on  that  hierarchy,)  superstition,  heresy,  schism,  pro- 
faneness  and  whatsoever  shall  be  found  contrary  to 
sound  doctrine  and  the  power  of  godliness."  The  con- 
vention, or  parliament,  as  it  had  been  called,  of  1641, 
abolished  patronages  by  an  ordinance,  which  by  the  godly 
was  thought  "  worthy  of  being  written  in  letters  of  gold." 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  in  the  history  of  Presbytery, 
whenever  it  reached  a  point  when,  in  their  own  opinion, 
it  had  neither  spot  nor  wrinkle,  it  immediately  began 
to  backslide.  "  After  this,"  says  Willison  in  his  Testi- 
mony, "  a  mournful  scene  opened,  by  the  breaking  divi- 
sion that  entered  into  the  Church,  which  tended  to  stop 
the  progress  of  reformation  work,  and  make  way  at 
length  for  restoring  Prelacy.  This  was  occasioned  by 
some  ensnaring  questions  put  to  the  commission  in 
December,  1650,  by  the  king,  (Charles  11.)  and  parlia- 
ment, (which  they  had  better  have  declined  to  answer,) 
concerning  the  admission  of  persons  into  places  of  public 
trust,  civil  and  military,  who  formerly  had  been  opposers 
of  the  Covenanted  reformation,  upon  their  making  public 
profession  of  their  repentance ;  those  who  were  for  ad- 
mitting them  being  called  Puhlic  Resolutioners,  and  thos,e 
against  it  being  called  Protestors.'' 

The  Protestors  or  Remonstrators,  were  the  violent  and 
fanatical  Presbyterians  attached  to  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant.  The  Resolutioners  were  the  remains  of 
the  Episcopal  clergy,  and  were  by  far  the  greatest  pro- 
portion of  the  kingdom. 

Sharp  was  a  Resolutioner.  He  occupied  so  eminent 
a  place  in  his  party  that  he  represented  them  when 


O 


SHARP.  369 

Cromwell  was  in  Scotland,  and  sought  to  reconcile  reli- 
gious differences.  He  was  consulted  by  Monck,  who 
seems  to  have  relied  much  on  his  judgment  when  de- 
signing to  restore  the  king.  He  was  sent  to  Breda,  and 
conferred  with  Charles  the  Second,  and  "  in  all  his 
transactions,"  says  Guthrie,  "  he  seems  to  have  acted 
with  great  prudence  and  frankness  towards  his  consti- 
tuents ;  I  can  see  no  great  ground  for  the  violent  charge 
brought  by  Bishop  Burnet  against  the  former,  for  ingra- 
titude and  treachery  towards  his  constituents  ; — he  fairly 
tells  Douglass  that  he  would  not  appear  for  Presbytery 
in  any  other  way  than  within  his  own  sphere." 

He  seems  to  have  been  desirous  at  first  of  establishing 
the  moderate  Presbyterian  system,  to  which  he  belonged 
in  Scotland.  But  he  soon  perceived  that  every  thing 
was  tending  towards  the  re-establishment  of  Episcopacy, 
to  which  he  had  always  inclined,  without  thinking  it 
essential.  He  writes  from  London  :  "  From  any  obser- 
vation I  can  make,  I  find  the  Preshijterian  cause  wholly 
given  up  and  lost.  The  influencing  men  of  the  Presby- 
terian judgment  are  content  wdth  Episcopacy  of  Bishop 
Usher's  model,  and  a  Liturgy  somewhat  corrected,  with 
the  ceremonies  of  surplice,  cross  in  baptism,  kneeling  at 
communion,  if  they  be  not  imposed  by  a  canon,  suh 
poena  aut  culpa.  And  for  the  Assembly's  Confession,  I 
am  afraid  they  will  yield  it  to  be  set  to  the  door ;  and 
that  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  some 
amendments,  take  place.  The  moderate  Episcopalians 
and  Presbyterians  fear,  that  either  the  high  Episcopal 
men  be  uppermost,  or  that  the  Erastians  carry  it  from 
both.  As  for  those  they  call  rigid  Presbyterians,  there 
are  but  few  of  them,  and  these  only  to  be  found  in  the 
province  of  London  and  Lancashire,  who  will  be  incon- 
siderable to  the  rest  of  the  nation.  A  knowing  minister 
told  me  this  day,  that  if  a  synod  should  be  called  by  the 
plurahty  of  incumbents,  they  would  infallibly  carry  Epis- 
copacy.    There  are  many  nominal, /eit;  real  Presbyterians. 


370  SHARP 

The  cassock-men  do  swarm  here ;  and  such  who  seemed 
to  be  for  Presbytery,  would  be  content  of  a  moderate 
Episcopacy.  We  must  leave  this  in  the  Lord's  hands. 
Who  may  be  pleased  to  preserve  to  us  what  He  hath 
wrought  for  us.  I  see  not  what  use  I  can  be  longer 
here.  I  wish  my  neck  were  out  of  the  collar.  Some 
of  our  countrymen  go  to  the  Common  Prayer.  All  matters 
are  devolved  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  in  whose  power 
it  is  to  do  absolutely  what  he  pleases,  in  Church  and 
state.  His  heart  is  in  His  hand,  upon  whom  are  our 
eyes."  In  another  letter  of  the  same  date,  Mr.  Sharp 
says,  '*  I  find  our  Presbyterian  friends  quite  taken  off 
their  feet,  and  what  they  talk  of  us  and  our  help,  is 
merely  for  their  own  ends.  They  stick  not  to  say,  that 
had  it  not  been  for  the  vehemency  of  the  Scots,  Messrs. 
Henderson  and  Gillespie,  &c.,  set  forms  had  been  con- 
tinued ;  and  they  tvere  never  against  them.  The  king  and 
(Scottish)  grandees  are  nholly  for  Episcopacy  ;  the  Epis- 
copal men  are  very  high." — "  The  parliament  when  it 
meets  will  make  all  void  since  1639,  and  so  the  king 
will  be  made  king,  (that  is,  absolute  there  ;  in  Scotland, 
to  wit,  as  here,)  and  dispose  of  places  and  offices  as  he 
pleases." 

Sharp  acted  according  to  the  best  of  his  judgment. 
He  had  never  been  a  Covenanter :  he  represented  the 
old  episcopal  clergy  who  had  been  ousted  by  the  red 
hot  Presbyterians,  and  the  more  moderate  of  the  Pres- 
byterian party.  He  evidently  supposed  that  in  consenting 
to  the  shadow  of  episcopacy  to  which  he  was  called  upon 
to  yield,  he  had  the  majority  of  his  constituents  with  him, 
and  by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  received  when 
he  returned  to  Scotland,  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  he 
had  judged  correctly.  Every  thing  was  to  remain  the 
same  as  under  the  Presbyterian  system ;  no  liturgy;  no 
ceremonies ;  no  cross  in  baptism,  no  altars,  no  kneeling 
at  the  Eucharist,  no  chancels  were  to  be  introduced  :  only 
the  chief  pastor  of  each  diocese  was  to  be  a  consecrated 


SHARP.  371 

person.  Well  might  the  English  Presbyterians  exclaim, 
"  What  would  our  brethren  in  Scotland  be  at  ?  What 
would  they  have  ?"  The  restoration  of  Episcopacy,  says 
Guthrie,  was  inevitable.  In  1661,  came  forth  the  act 
Rescissory  by  which  were  rescinded  all  the  acts  by  the  re- 
bellious parliaments  since  1633,  and  the  Church  was  thus 
virtually  restored  to  what  it  was  in  1612.  The  next  step 
was  to  restore  the  right  of  presentation  to  the  patrons  of 
Scottish  benefices,  of  which  right  they  had  been  deprived 
in  1649.  And  at  last  came  forth  the  Proclamation  from 
Whitehall,  declaring  it  to  be  the  king's  pleasure  to  restore 
the  government  of  the  Church  by  archbishops  and  bishops 
as  it  stood  settled  in  1637. 

Sharp  acted  unwisely  in  accepting  the  j^rimacy  under 
such  circumstances.  The  Covenanters  were  enraged 
beyond  endurance,  and  as  they  could  not  vent  their  rage 
on  the  king,  they  singled  out  Sharp.  These  feelings  were 
expressed  by  the  most  malignant  and  profligate  Covenanter 
then  in  existence,  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  who  addressed 
the  following  words  to  Sharp : — "  Mr.  Sharp,  bishops  you 
are  to  have  in  Scotland ;  and  you  are  to  be  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrew's.  But,  whoever  shall  be  the  man,  I  will 
smite  him  and  his  order,  below  the  fifth  rib."  And  well 
did  he  make  this  flagitious  saying  good  !  For  when  he 
perceived  that  the  restoration  of  bishops  was  inevitable, 
his  malignity  found  a  resource  in  the  resolution  to  make 
Episcopacy  hateful  and  intolerable.  "  My  lord,"  he  ex- 
claimed with  an  oath,  to  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  who 
had  expressed  his  anxiety  for  a  limited,  sober,  and 
moderate  Episcopacy, — "  My  lord,  since  you  are  for 
bishops,  and  must  have  them,  bishops  you  shall  have  : 
and  higher  than  they  ever  were  in  Scotland :  and  that 
you  shall  find."  It  is  well  known  that  he  was  faithful 
to  this  threat.  He  succeeded,  to  his  heart's  content,  in 
making  the  cause  he  wished  to  ruin,  utterly  detestable, 
by  often  labouring  in  its  behalf  with  the  merciless 
ferocity  of  an  inquisitor. 


372  SHARP. 

That  the  view  we  have  taken  of  Sharp's  principles  are 
correct,  namely,  that  he  regarded  Episcopacy  as  expe- 
dient, but  not  essential  to  the  validity  of  holy  orders, 
appears  from  what  took  place  in  the  preliminaries  to 
the  consecration  of  himself  and  three  other  Scottish 
clergymen.  Kirkton  says,  "  first,  there  was  a  question 
to  be  answered,  and  that  was,  whether  they  were  to  be 
re-ordained  presbyters,  yea,  or  no  ?  Sharp  desired  they 
might  be  excused,  and  that  their  Presbyterian  ordina- 
might  be  sustained.  Episcopal  they  could  not  have; 
and  the  former  English  bishops  had  sustained  Spottis- 
wood's  Presbyterian  ordination  in  the  year  1610;  but 
Sheldon  was  peremptory — either  they  must  renounce 
their  old  Presbyterian  ordination,  or  miss  their  expected 
Episcopal  coronation  ;  so  they  were  cont€nt  rather  to 
deny  themselves  to  be  presbyters,  than  not  to  be  re- 
ceived bishops ;  and  when  they  consented,  Sheldon  told 
Sharp  that  it  was  the  Scottish  fashion  to  scruple  at  every 
thing,  and  swallow  any  thing.  But  with  a  great  pro- 
cess of  change  of  vestments,  offices,  prayers,  bowing  to 
the  altar,  and  kneeling  at  the  communion,  they  were 
re-ordained  presbyters,  and  consecrated  bishops  both  in 
one  day,  and  this  was  a  preface  to  a  fat  Episcopal  ban- 
quet, and  so  their  work  ended.  This  was  done  Decenii- 
ber,  1661." 

Wodrow,  in  the  printed  history,  gives  the  same  account 
in  nearly  the  same  words ;  but  in  his  *'  Analecta,"  he 
relates  a  hearsay  story,  as  follows :—"  January,  1707. 
This  day,  Mr.  James  Webster  told  that  his  author  had 
this  account  from  Bishop  Hamilton;  that  after  the 
Restoration,  Sharp,  Leighton,  Hamilton,  and  Fairfowl, 
four  of  them,  were  at  London ;  and  that  there  were 
only  two  of  them  that  were  re-ordained,  that  were  Sharp 
and  Leighton :  that  when  Sharp  got  the  gift  of  the 
Archbishopric  of  St.  Andrews  from  the  king,  he  came 
to  Juxon,  Bishop  of  London,  with  the  orders ;  and  who 
says  that  is  very  good,  but  Mr.  Sharp,  where  are  your 


SHARP.  373 

orders?  You  must  be  re-ordained  presbyter,  before  you 
can  be  consecrated  bishop.  He  said  he  behoved  to  con- 
sult with  his  brethren,  and  returned  and  told  them  that 
they  behoved  to  be  re-ordained.  Mr.  Hamilton  and  the 
others  said,  that  they  were  ordained  before  the  thirty- 
eight,  by  bishops.  Mr.  Leighton  said,  J  will  yield, 
(although)  I  am  persuaded  I  was  in  orders  before,  and 
my  ministrations  were  valid,  and  that  they  do  it  cumu- 
lative, and  not  privative ;  and  although  I  should  be 
ordained  every  year,   I   will  submit." 

The  reception  of  the  new  prelates  in  Scotland  was 
enthusiastic.  On  the  6th  of  April,  the  primate  and 
the  other  bishops  arrived  at  Berwick-on-Tweed.  Many 
of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  ministers  went  from  Edin- 
burgh as  far  as  Cockburn's-path,  a  hamlet  about  eight 
miles  beyond  Dunbar,  to  meet  and  escort  them  into 
the  capital.  A  vast  multitude  of  inferior  note  met 
them  at  Musselburgh,  whence  they  were  conducted 
into  Edinburgh,  in  triumph ;  "  and  with  all  reverence 
and  respect  received  and  embraced  them,  in  great  pomp 
and  grandeur,  with  sound  of  trumpet  and  all  other 
curtesies  requisite.  This  done  on  Tuesday,  the  8th  of 
April,  1662."  This  is  corroborated  by  Wodrow ;  but 
he  adds,  "  which  was  not  a  little  pleasing  to  Sharp's 
ambitious  temper."  There  is  no  doubt  it  would  be 
pleasing  not  only  to  him,  but  to  all  those  who  wished 
for  the  peace  of  their  country,  or  that  the  wounds  of 
the  Church  should  be  healed.  It  is  pleasing,  even  at 
this  day,  when  the  Covenanting  fire  is  smouldering  in 
its  ashes,  to  see  with  what  unanimity  so  good  a  work 
was  received  by  "  the  generality  of  the  new  upstart 
generation;  who  had  no  love  to  Presbyterial  govern- 
ment ;  feeding  themselves  with  the  fancy  of  Episcopacy." 
Let  the  Covenanters  say  what  they  will,  this  demonstra- 
tions is  a  decided  proof  of  "  the  inclinations  of  the 
people."  It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  and  recorded  too 
by  Wodrow,  that  "the   generality  of   the    people  were 

VOL.  VIIl.  K    K 


374  SHARP. 

wearied"  of  the  Presbyterial  yoke,  and  none  but  the 
bigoted  Covenanters  were  opposed  to  the  Episcopal 
government. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  at  the  Scottish  metropolis,  the 
primate  consecrated  other  bishops  to  the  vacant  sees. 
Kirkton,  followed  by  Wodrow,  indulges  his  maUce  in 
giving  the  blackest  character  to  all  these  fathers  of  the 
Church,  but  especially  to  Dr.  Sharp.  Their  satanic 
malice,  and  indeed  that  of  the  whole  Covenanters, 
defeats  itself,  and  even  brings  a  direct  reproach  upon 
their  own  beloved  discipline.  If  the  bishops  were  such 
monsters  of  wickedness  as  they  represent  them  to  have 
been,  why  did  the  Kirk,  in  its  state  of  Philadelphian 
purity,  suffer  them  to  exercise  their  ministry  without 
rebuke  ?  Why  suffer  them  to  disgrace  the  Presbyterian 
discipline,  which  Kirkton  informs  us  was  so  severe,  and 
so  inquisitorial,  that  even  a  poor  peasant  could  not 
escape  its  searching  strictness,  far  less  its  ministry? 
We  leave  these  questions  to  be  answered  by  those  who 
believe  and  continue  the  malicious  misrepresentations 
of  those  persecutors  of  the  true  Church.  Had  they 
really  been  such  immoral  men,  under  such  an  inquisi- 
torial discipline,  it  would  have  been  next  to  impossible 
to  have  concealed  their  immorality,  even  although  Kirk- 
ton admits,  that  their  tyranical  discipline  made  hypocrisy 
the  besetting  sin  of  the  age.  It  says  very  little  for  the 
severe  morality  to  which  the  Presbyterian  discipline  is 
said  to  be  so  favourable,  to  wink  at  such  alleged  wicked- 
ness in  their  ministers.  Had  these  men,  however, 
remained  in  their  obscurity  of  parish  ministers ;  but 
more  particularly,  had  they  adopted  the  Presbyterian 
discipline,  the  world  would  have  been  unedified  by  the 
malicious  libels  of  Kirkton  and  Wodrow.  It  is  certain, 
there  never  was  the  slightest  accusation  of  immorality 
against  them  till  after  their  promotion  to  the  order  of 
bishops.  The  Covenanting  historians,  and  who  have 
been   but  too  thoughtlessly  copied   by  more   reputable 


SHARP.  375 

names,  have  heaped  the  most  atrocious  falsehoods  on 
the  Scottish  bishops ;  accusations  which  a  small  degree 
of  reflection  would  show  were  the  suggestions  of  malice 
and  envy  alone.  The  bishops  were  chosen  out  of  the. 
party  known  by  the  name  of  public  Resolutioners,  towards 
whom  the  Covenanters  entertained  the  most  fiendish 
hatred. 

None,  however,  suffered  so  much,  nor  more  unjustly, 
than  Archbishop  Sharp.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  chief 
and  paramount  object  with  his  enemies,  to  fix  on  him 
the  guilt  of  necromancy,  and  for  which  purpose  the  most 
absurd  and  improbable  falsehoods  have  been  gravely 
recorded  as  materials  for  future  history.  Such  "  weak 
inventions  of  the  enemy"  would  only  excite  contempt, 
as  being  the  childish  gossip  of  ignorant  and  silly  men, 
envious  of  his  superior  abilities  and  station,  were  it  not 
for  the  deep  and  fiendish  malice  which  lurks  under 
them.  The  atrocious  libels  which  the  chief  historian 
of  that  period  has  put  into  circulation,  and  which  have 
been  thoughtlessly  and  maliciously  repeated  without 
inquiry,  are  recorded  upon  no  better  authority  than  mere 
hearsay.  The  object  is  apparent,  and  hitherto  has  been 
eminently  successful ;  for  not  content  with  taking  his 
life  in  a  most  barbarous  manner,  they  have  never  ceased 
to  murder  his  character,  so  that  he  has  been  a  double 
martyr — in  deed  and  in  reputation.  Good  men  in  all 
ages  have  been  the  butt  of  the  wicked  ;  but  none  were 
ever  so  maligned  and  insulted  whilst  living,  nor  their 
memories  so  persecuted  when  dead,  and  some  of  them 
even  murdered,  as  these  fathers  of  the  Church,  but 
especially  the  archbishop.  The  persecution,  whether 
active  or  passive,  to  which  the  true  Church  has  ever 
been  subjected  by  heretics  and  schismatics,  may  consti- 
tute one  of  its  marks.  The  Church  in  England  was 
crushed  beneath  the  upper  millstone  of  Popish  Jesuits, 
and  the  nether  millstone  of  the  Puritans ;  and  the 
Church  in  Scotland  was  annihilated  by  the  united  fero- 


376  SHARP. 

city  and  intolerance  of  the  Covenanters  and  Popish 
emissaries,  at  the  grand  rebeUion.  It  has  been  all  along 
the  tactics  of  all  these  parties  to  persecute  the  Church, 
but  especially  the  Church  in  Scotland,  by  the  continued 
circulation  of  the  most  enormously  wicked  and  inconsis- 
tent falsehoods  on  the  memories  of  the  first  prelates  of 
that  branch  of  the  Church  Catholic. 

Of  the  persecutions  to  which  the  Covenanters  were 
subjected  by  the  civil  power  we  have  only  to  speak  with 
abhorrence,  and  with  the  greater  abhorrence  when  we 
know  that  the  profligate  instigator  of  these  was  himself 
of  the  same  way  of  thinking  with  those  he  persecuted, 
and  desired  to  make  Episcopacy  stink  in  the  nostrils  of 
the  people.  But  for  these  atrocities  Sharp  is  not  respon- 
sible, and  it  is  to  be  recollected  that  the  principles  of 
the  Covenanters  were  principles  as  much  opposed  to  the 
laws  of  common  humanity  as  to  the  laws  of  God,  They 
thirsted  for  the  blood  of  these  victims,  and  many  felt 
that  if  they  were  not  repressed  they  would  be  themselves 
destroyed.  The  principles  of  the  Covenanters  and  Pres- 
byterians of  that  age  are  sufficiently  exemplified  by  the 
concluding  events  of  Sharp's  life. 

In  the  year  1668,  when  the  primate  was  in  Edinburgh, 
and  engaged  "  in  distributing  alms  to  the  poor  in  the 
street,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  True  and  Impartial 
Account,"  he  was  shot  at  by  a  fanatical  preacher  of  the 
name  of  Mitchell,  who  had  been  out  with  the  armed 
insurrection  two  years  before  :  "  a  youth,"  says  Wodrow, 
"  of  much  piety  and  zeal " !  The  ball  missed  Sharp, 
but  wounded  Honyman,  Bishop  of  Orkney,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  beside  him,  and  who  died  of  the  w^ound 
a  few  years  after.  Here,  again,  Wodrow  remarks,  that 
"people  could  not  help  observing  the  righteousness  of 
Providence  in  disabling  Bishop  Honyman,"  because,  it 
seems,  in  former  times  he  had  written  in  favour  of  Pres- 
byterianism  !  The  assassin  made  his  escape  through 
the  crowd;  but  not  before  his  features  were  distinctly 


SHARP.  377 

seen  by  the  primate.  In  order  to  escape  from  justice, 
he  went  to  Holland,  where  he  remained  five  j^ears,  from 
whence  he  returned  with  a  resolution  to  make  a  second 
attempt  on  the  object  of  his  hatred.  Accordingly,  he 
came  with  his  wife  to  Edinburgh,  and  hired  a  small 
shop  within  a  few  doors  of  Sharp's  lodgings,  where  he 
sold  tobacco  and  groceries.  One  day  soon  after,  the 
primate  being  accidentally  in  Edinburgh,  perceived  this 
very  man  eyeing  him  with  a  malignant  scowl,  as  if 
watching  for  an  opportunity  of  doing  him  some  mischief. 
He  had  him  instantly  arrested ;  and  two  loaded  pistols, 
with  three  balls  each,  being  found  upon  him,  he  was 
brought  before  a  committee  of  the  privy  council,  who, 
it  is  alleged,  promised  him  his  life  if  he  would  confess 
that  he  was  the  person  who  had  attempted  to  shoot  the 
primate  on  the  former  occasion.  On  this  point,  however, 
the  accounts  are  conflicting.  One  asserts  that  Sharp 
only  promised  to  intercede  for  him,  on  the  condition  of 
his  confessing.  Burnet  (who  disliked  Sharp  personally, 
and  admits  that  he  received  his  account  from  one  of 
his  enemies)  says  that  he  swore  to  Mitchell  with  uplifted 
hands,  that  if  he  would  confess,  no  harm  whatever  should 
happen  to  him.  The  criminal,  it  would  appear,  made 
the  required  confession;  after  which  he  was  taken  for 
trial  before  the  Lords  of  Justiciary,  the  appointed  judges 
in  all  criminal  cases.  Some  one  had  hinted  to  him,  in 
the  meantime,  that  he  ought  not  to  confess  anything ; 
because,  though  he  might  get  his  life,  he  would  pro- 
bably lose  his  hand,  and  be  imprisoned  for  the  remainder 
of  his  days.  Being  called  upon  by  the  court  to  say 
whether  he  were  guilty  or  not,  he  pleaded  not  guilty, 
and  obstinately  refused  to  repeat  his  former  confession, 
though  informed  that  his  life  could  not  be  granted  to 
him  on  any  other  condition.  As  therefore  he  withdrew 
his  confession,  the  council  considered  themselves  justi- 
fied in  withdrawing  their  conditional  promise  of  pardon ; 
and  in  the  meantime,  till  he  should  think  better  of  it, 

3  KK 


378  SHARP. 

lie  was  sent  to  the  tolbooth,  where  he  was  imprisoned  two 
years.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  he  was  again  brought 
before  the  council,  and  had  the  cruel  torture  of  the 
boots  applied  to  one  of  his  legs,  but  without  producing 
the  required  confession.  Next,  he  was  remanded  to  the 
Bass  rock,  where  he  was  kept  another  two  years,  after 
which  his  trial  was  resumed,  according  to  Laing,  "  at 
the  instigation  of  Sharp."  The  evidence  against  him 
was  conclusive ;  and  was  so  far  from  being  contradicted, 
even  by  himself,  that  when  asked  by  Lord  Halton  why 
he  had  done  so  execrable  an  act,  he  answered,  "  Because 
the  archbishop  was  an  enemy  to  the  godly  people  in  the 
west."  His  trial  lasted  four  days ;  at  the  end  of  which, 
being  found  guilty  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  a  jury  con- 
sisting of  fifteen  gentlemen,  he  was  condemned  and 
executed.  In  his  last  words,  he  declared  openly  that 
he  laid  down  his  life  in  opposition  to  the  perfidious 
prelates,  and  in  testimony  to  the  cause  of  Christ :  and 
blessed  God  that  He  had  thought  him  worthy  of  so 
doing. 

The  foregoing  are  the  simple  facts  of  the  case,  so  far 
as  they  are  known,  as  we  find  them  briefly  detailed 
by  Mr.  Lyons,  in  his  History  of  St.  Andrews,  and  it  must 
rest  with  the  reader  to  judge  whether  Sharp  is  deserving 
of  the  odium  with  which  his  memory  has  been  loaded 
for  the  part  he  took  in  the  transaction. 

After  an  administration  of  eighteen  years,  Sharp,  as 
is  well  known,  was  cruelly  murdered  by  a  party  of  ruffians 
to  whom  he  had  made  himself  obnoxious.  Their  con- 
spiracy against  him  arose  out  of  a  quarrel  which  he  had 
with  one  Haxton  of  Rathillet,  and  his  brother-in-law, 
Balfour  of  Kinloch,  about  some  money  due  to  him,  which 
they  resisted,  while  he  took  legal  means  to  compel  pay- 
meut.  This  so  exasperated  them,  that  they  engaged  a 
party  of  seven  Covenanters  who  were  too  happy  to  wreak 
their  vengeance  on  the  primate  on  religious  grounds. 
With   their  help,  they  way-laid   him  on  Magus  Muir, 


SHARP.  379 

near  St.  Andrews,  as  he  was  travelling  home  in  his 
coach  from  Edinburgh,  accompanied  by  his  eldest 
daughter.  But  here  we  will  allow  his  biographer  to 
describe  what  occurred  on  his  part  immediatety  previous 
to  the  murder : — "  Upon  Friday,  May  2nd,  he  deter- 
mined to  take  a  journey  to  St.  Andrews,  with  a  design 
to  return  upon  Monday  to  Edinburgh,  and  thence  to 
begin  his  journey  for  court.  On  Friday  evening  he 
reached  Kennoway,  where  he  lodged  that  night ;  in  which, 
and  next  morning,  he  was  observed  to  have  eaten  or 
drunk  very  little,  but  was  known  to  have  been  very 
fervent  and  longer  than  ordinary  in  his  devotions ;  as 
if  God,  out  of  His  great  mercy,  had  thereby  prepared 
him  for  what  he  was  to  meet  with  from  the  worst  of  men. 
His  religious  behaviour  was  so  much  taken  notice  of  that 
morning  by  the  pious  and  learned  Dr.  Monro,  (who  had 
come  to  wait  on  him,)  that  he  said  he  believed  he  was 
inspired.  So,  on  Saturday,  May  3rd,  he  entered  his 
coach  with  his  daughter  Isabel,  and  went  on  his  journey. 
All  the  way  he  entertained  her  with  religious  discourses, 
particularly  of  the  vanity  of  life,  the  certainty  of  death 
and  judgment,  of  the  necessity  of  faith,  good  works,  and 
repentance,  and  daily  growth  in  grace,"  &c.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  his  murder  have  often  been  described. 
Let  it  suffice  to  say  here,  that  the  assassins,  after  making 
themselves  masters  of  the  servants  and  horses,  dragged 
the  unfortunate  prelate  out  of  his  coach,  and  despatched 
him  with  many  wounds.  Instead  of  trying  to  escape, 
they  retired  to  a  neighbouring  cottage,  where  they  devoted 
several  hours  to  prayer.  They  felt  no  fear  or  compunction, 
but  thanked  God  that  he  had  enabled  them  to  accomplish 
this  glorious  work,  and  asked  strength  that  they  might, 
if  necessary,  seal  it  with  their  blood !  Danziel,  one  of 
the  fanatics,  declared  that,  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  he 
heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servants." 
The  murder  of  the   archbishop  was   received  with  a 


380  SHARP. 

savage  yell  of  exultation  throughout  all  the  regions  of 
remonstrant  Presbyterianism,  which  of  itself  shewed 
how  abhorrent  their  principles  were  from  the  spirit  of 
the  Gospel.  Their  malignity  has  defeated  itself  in  the 
portraiture  they  have  undertaken  to  draw  of  their  victim. 
They  have  represented  him,  not  only  as  a  traitor  and  a 
persecutor,  but  as  a  wretch,  stained  with  the  most  abomi- 
nable crimes, — with  infanticide,  adultery,  and  incest. 
And,  in  order  to  deepen  the  horrors  of  the  picture,  they 
have  not  scrupled  to  affirm,  that  he  was  in  a  dark  con- 
federacy with  the  evil  potentate  !  It  is  seriously  related 
by  Wodrow  that,  on  one  occasion,  the  archbishop  de- 
spatched his  footmen  to  St,  Andrews,  for  a  paper ;  and 
that,  when  the  man  arrived  at  St.  Andrews,  after  a  hasty 
journey,  to  his  terror  and  astonishment,  he  found  his 
grace  there,  quietly  sitting  at  his  table,  with  his  black 
gown  and  tippet,  and  his  broad  hat,  just  as  he  had  left 
him  at  Edinburgh.  Another  story  is,  that  one  Janet 
Douglas,  when  summoned  before  the  council,  on  a  charge 
of  sorcery,  declared  that  she  knew  who  were  witches, 
but  was  no  witch  herself.  Being  threatened  with  the 
plantations,  she  turned  to  the  primate,  and  said,  "  My 
lord,  who  was  with  you,  in  your  closet,  on  Saturday  night 
last,  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock  ?"  And,  when  after- 
wards privately  questioned  by  Lord  Rothes,  she  declared 
that  his  grace's  nocturnal  visitor  was  no  other  than  the 
muckle  black  deevil  himself.  It  was,  moreover,  asserted 
that  "he  bore  a  charmed  life,"  or,  at  least,  a  s/io^proof 
body,  upon  which  leaden  bullets  could  work  no  further 
mischief  than  to  leave  black  or  blue  marks  behind  them ! 
And,  all  this  trash  is  propounded  with  just  as  much 
confidence  and  gravity,  as  if  it  were  a  narrative  of  the 
best  authenticated  facts !  It  would  be  cruel  to  hang  a 
dog  on  the  sole  testimony  of  such  witnesses. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  picture,  it  is  undeniable 
that  in  his  personal  habits  of  life  he  was  blameless ;  we 
have  not  grounds   for  doubting  that  his   religion  was 


SHARP,  JOHN.  38] 

sincere,  and  it  is  beyond  question  that  he  was  charitable 
to  the  poor.  Neither  can  it  be  disputed  that  he  was 
capable  of  kind  and  generous  offices  towards  men  who 
w^ere  anything  but  his  well-wishers.  By  his  intercession 
with  the  king  he  saved  the  lives  of  two  traitors,  Simpson 
and  Gillespie;  and  he  made  a  similar  attempt,  though 
without  success,  in  favour  of  a  third,  the  notorious 
Guthrie,  author  of  the  treasonable  pamphlet  entitled, 
"  The  Causes  of  God's  Wrath,"  &c.  These  facts  were 
known  to  Wodrow ;  but  were  scandalously  suppressed 
by  ^im  in  his  calumnious  History.  His  commission 
was  "  to  aggravate  the  crimes,"  and  not  to  blazon  the 
virtues  of  the  royal  clergy. — Stephens.  Lyons  History  of 
St.  Andrews. 


SHABP,    JOHN. 

John  Shabp  was  born  at  Bradford,  now  one  of  the  first 
towns  in  Yorkshire,  but  at  that  time  little  more  than 
a  village,  on  the  16th  of  February,  1644,  his  father  being 
an  eminent  tradesman.  In  1660,  he  went  to  Cambridge, 
and  in  1667,  he  was  ordained  on  the  same  day  deacon 
and  priest  at  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  by  Dr.  Fuller, 
Bishop  of  Limerick,  and  he  became  domestic  chaplain 
to  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  then  attorney-general. 

In  1672,  he  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Berkshire,  aod 
in  1676,  Prebendary  of  Norwich,  next  Eector  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  near  the  Exchange,  and  afterwards  of 
St.  Giles'-in-the-Fields,  London.  In  1679,  he  took  his 
degree  of  D.D.,  and  became  lecturer  of  St.  Lawrence, 
Jewry.  In  1681,  he  was  made  Dean  of  Norwich,  by  the 
interest  of  his  friend  Finch,  at  that  time  lord-chancellor. 

As  a  parish  priest  and  as  a  preacher,  he  was  exem- 
plary and  laborious.  But  with  the  exception  of  a  con- 
troversy with  Dissenters,  occasioned  by  a  sermon  he  had 
preached  before  the   lord-mayor,   in  1674,  he  did   not 


382  SHARP,  JOHN. 

come  prominently  before  the  public  until  the  reign  of 
James  II. 

Dr.  Sharp,  in  1686,  having  preached  in  his  own 
church  a  sermon  against  Popery,  as  he  descended  from 
the  pulpit  a  paper  was  put  into  his  hand,  containing 
an  argument  for  the  right  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to 
the  title  of  the  only  visible  Catholic  Church.  This  he 
answered  from  his  pulpit  on  the  next  Sunday ;  which 
circumstance  being  represented  at  court  as  an  attempt 
to  produce  jealousy  and  disaffection  to  his  majesty's 
government,  and  an  infraction  of  his  order  concerning 
preachers,  the  king  was  greatly  incensed,  and  in  the 
June  following,  sent  a  mandate  to  Dr.  Compton,  Bishop 
of  London,  for  the  suspension  of  Dr.  Sharp  from  preach- 
ing in  any  church  or  chapel  in  his  diocese,  till  he  had 
given  satisfaction  for  his  offence.  The  bishop  sent  for 
the  doctor,  and  informed  him  of  the  royal  displeasure, 
who  replied,  that  he  had  never  been  called  upon  to 
answer  for  the  matter,  or  to  make  his  defence,  and  that 
he  was  ready  to  give  full  satisfaction.  The  bishop  there- 
upon wrote  to  Lord  Sunderland,  stating  the  impossibility 
of  his  complying  with  the  king's  command,  since  he 
must  act  in  the  case  as  judge,  and  could  not  condemn  a 
man  without  knowledge  of  the  cause,  and  citing  the 
accused  party.  He,  however,  advised  Dr.  Sharp  to 
intermit  the  exercise  of  his  function,  and  for  the  present, 
to  go  down  to  the  Deanery  at  Norwich.  With  this 
advice  he  complied,  and  employed  his  leisure  in  forming 
a  cabinet  of  coins,  chiefly  British,  Saxon,  and  English. 
At  length  he  presented  a  very  humble  petition  to  the 
king,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was  permitted  to 
return  to  his  duty  in  the  metropolis !  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  according  to  his  promise,  he  was  careful  to 
give  no  farther  offence  from  the  pulpit.  When,  however, 
in  1688,  the  archdeacons  were  summoned  to  appear 
before  the  ecclesiastical  commissioners  for  disobeying  the 
king's  orders  about  the  declaration,  he  concurred  with 


SHARP,  JOHN.  383 

his  brethren  in  declining  to  appear,  and  drew  up  the 
reasons  for  their  refusal.  Still  true  to  the  loyal  prin- 
ciples of  his  Church,  when  he  preached,  first  before  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  and  then  before  the  convention,  he 
prayed  before  sermon  for  King  James  ;  on  the  second  of 
these  occasions,  the  house  of  commons  having  now  voted 
that  the  king  had  abdicated,  he  gave  much  offence  by  his 
prayer,  and  also  by  some  passages  in  his  sermon,  that 
after  a  long  debate,  the  house  broke  up  without  voting 
him  the  usual  thanks ;  but  this  was  done  afterwards. 

He  had  no  doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  revolution, 
but  he  had  a  deep  sense  of  duty,  and  we  may  therefore 
suppose  that  at  this  time  he  did  not  consider  all  hope 
of  an  accommodation  with  James  to  be  at  an  end. 

It  was  with  the  same  propriety  of  feeling,  that  while 
he  accepted  from  William  the  Deanery  of  Canterbury, 
in  1689,  he  refused  and  adhered  to  his  refusal,  to  accept 
any  of  the  bishoprics  vacant  by  the  ousting  of  the  non- 
juring  bishops.  He  risked  the  loss  of  William's  favour 
in  doing  so,  but  he  felt  the  claims  of  private  friendship, 
he  honoured  the  high  though,  as  he  thought,  the  mis- 
taken principle  of  the  non-jurors,  and  he  may  have 
doubted  of  the  lawfulness  of  the  process  by  which  they 
were  deprived.  But  on  the  death  of  Lamplugh  in  1691, 
he  accepted  the  Diocese  of  York.  As  Archbishop  of 
York,  his  conduct  was  as  exemplary  as  it  had  been  as 
a  parish  priest.  He  sympathised  with  his  clergy ;  he 
could  understand  their  difficulties,  and  acted  as  their 
adviser  and  friend.  He  bestowed  all  the  canonries  of 
his  church  upon  the  clergy  of  his  diocese :  he  was 
indefatigable  in  preaching  himself,  and  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  his  clergy  preach  that  so  he  might 
judge  of  their  powers  in  the  pulpit.  His  cathedral 
to  which  he  resorted  three  times  a  week,  (viz.,  on  the 
Litany  days,)  for  several  years  after  he  came  to  the  see, 
though  he  lived  two  miles  out  of  the  city,  served  him 
well  for  this  purpose.     For  in  that  church,  besides  the 


384  SHARP,  JOHN. 

preaching  courses,  distributed  among  t"he  prebendaries 
and  archdeacons,  on  all  the  Sundays  and  holidays  in 
the  year,  there  are  sermons  likewise  on  every  Wed- 
nesday and  Friday  in  Advent  and  Lent.  So  that  during 
those  seasons  at  least,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
three  sermons  a-week  from  different  hands.  But  as  all 
these  turns  in  the  Minster  were  chiefly  supplied  by  the 
members  of  it,  the  prebendaries  or  vicars-choral,  that 
he  might  also  exercise  and  know  the  talents  of  the 
city  clergy,  and  those  of  the  neighbouring  parishes,  he 
set  up  an  evening  lecture,  to  be  preached  on  every 
Friday,  at  All  Saint's  Church,  in  the  Pavement. 

He  was  particularly  careful  to  do  all  the  good  he 
could,  by  giving  advice  to  the  younger  clergy,  especially 
at  ordinations  and  visitations.  The  first  he  held  regu- 
larly at  all  the  stated  times,  when  he  was  in  his  diocese. 
And  as  it  was  a  business  of  the  greatest  weight  and 
consequence  that  appertained  to  his  office,  he  used  the 
properest  means  to  qualify  himself  for  the  discharge  of 
it.  He  usually  repaired  privately  to  his  chapel  to  beg 
God's  presence  with  him,  and  blessing  upon  him,  or, 
to  use  his  own  expression,  to  implore  the  guidance  of 
His  Spirit  in  that  work.  He  measured  candidates  for 
orders,  more  by  their  modesty  and  good  sense,  and  the 
testimonials  of  their  virtue,  than  by  their  learning.  To 
have  a  right  notion  of  the  main  doctrines  of  religion, 
to  understand  thoroughly  the  terms  of  the  new  covenant, 
both  on  God's  part  and  on  man's ;  and  to  know  the 
reasons,  and  apprehend  the  force  of  those  distinctions 
upon  which  the  Church  of  England  explained  and  stated 
those  terms  differently  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
other  communions  separating  from  her,  were  with  him, 
the  chief  qualifications  for  the  ministry  in  regard  to 
learning. 

When  consulted  about  the  Societies  for  the  Reformation 
of  Manners  which  were  established  in  various  parts  of 
the  country  about  the  year  1697,  he  declined  associating 


SHARP,  JOHN.  385 

with  dissenters  for  sucli  objects,  thougli  his  liberality 
towards  them,  not  to  their  principles,  was  well  known. 
And  referring  to  one  of  these  societies  instituted  at  Carlisle 
he  observes,  "  I  must  confess  if  a  society  was  entered 
into  at  York  upon  these  articles,  I  should  neither  give 
the  members  of  it  any  disturbance  nor  any  discourage- 
ment. I  should  only  wish  that  those  of  the  clergy  who 
joined  in  it  would  add  an  article  or  two  more,  w^hereby 
they  should  more  particularly  oblige  themselves  to  the 
reading  of  prayers  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and 
holidays,  or  in  populous  towns  every  day,  unless  they 
w^ere  hindered  by  some  urgent  business.  Secondly,  to 
the  holding  monthly  communions  in  their  parishes, 
and  lastly  to  the  diligent  attendance  upon  catechising 
and  instructing  the  youth  of  their  parishes  in  the 
principles  of  Christianity.  The  practice  of  which  things 
will  in  my  poor  opinion,  more  contribute  to  the  pro- 
moting a  reformation,  than  the  informing  against  crimi- 
nals, though  that  is  a  good  work   too." 

Whenever  he  was  consulted  by  the  clergy  about  their 
parochial  concerns,  he  immediately  answered  their 
queries,  and  clearly  and  positively  determined  them. 
In  all  his  letters  of  this  kind,  which  are  left,  there  is 
but  one  in  which  he  is  something  doubtful  what  to 
resolve ;  but  even  there  he  leaves  no  doubt  or  difJBculty 
upon  the  clergyman  who  consulted  him,  by  permitting, 
or  rather  advising  him  to  follow  his  own  first  deter- 
mination. The  case  not  being  very  common,  about  the 
marriage  of  a  person  with  a  quaker,  according  to  the 
usage  of  the  Church,  the  letter  itself  will  not  be  dis= 
agreeable  : — 

"November  30,  1700. 

"  Sir, — The  case  which  you  propose  hath  some  diffi- 
culty in  it,  since  our  present  canons  say  nothing  about 
it.  The  old  canons,  indeed,  are  express  against  any 
person  being  married,  who  was  not  first  baptized.  But 
then  in  those  times  marriage  was  accounted  a  sacrament, 

VOL.  VIII.  L  L 


386  SHARP,  JOHN. 

and  baptism  was  janua  sacramentorum.  On  the  other 
side,  though  marriage  be  no  sacrament,  but  all  men 
and  women  have  a  natural  right  to  it,  yet  whether 
any  who  are  not  initiated  in  Christianity,  ought  to  have 
the  solemn  benediction  of  the  Church  (as  it  is  upon  that 
account  that  the  clergy  have  anything  to  do  with  mar- 
riage,) is  a  thing  fit  to  be  considered.  Add  to  this,  that 
there  is  something  in  the  Church  office  which  supposeth 
that  both  the  married  persons  are  baptized.  For,  ac- 
cording to  the  Rubric,  it  is  "  convenient  that  they  re- 
ceive the  holy  communion  together  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity that  presents  itself."  And  therefore  they  must 
be  in  a  condition  of  receiving  it,  which  unbaptized 
persons  are  not. 

•'  Pray  ask  yourself  what  you  would  do  in  case  a  per- 
son excommunicated  should  desire  you  to  marry  him. 
Methinks  the  case  is  much  the  same. 

"I  do  think,  upon  the  whole,  it  is  not  advisable  to 
depart  from  your  first  resolution,  unless  the  party  will 
be  first  baptized,  which  I  am  not  against  your  doing  as 
privately  as  may  be. 

"  I  am,  &c.,  Jo.  Eboe." 

His  care  for  the  Church  extended  far,  and  when  he 
was  emploj^ed  in  1703,  in  preparing  measures  to  be 
laid  before  the  Convocation,  he  wished  to  add  a  proposal 
concerning  bishops  being  provided  for  the  plantations. 
"When  the  Occasional  Conformity  bill  was  introduced, 
there  was  one  point  which  he  laboured  to  carry,  and 
that  was  to  indemnify  parish  ministers  for  observing 
the  Rubric,  from  all  such  damages  as  by  the  Test  Act 
they  might  stand  liable  to,  for  refusing  to  give  the  sacra- 
ment in  any  instance  wherein  the  rubric  directed  repul- 
sion from  it.  In  the  debates,  December  4,  1702,  upon 
this  bill,  his  grace  applied  himself  to  this  point  alone. 
"  I  made  a  speech,  (says  he,)  against  the  clause  that  was 
then  brought  in  to  oblige  all  officers  to  receive  the  sacra- 


SHARP,  JOHN.  S8T 

ment  four  times  a  year,  unless  a  clause  might  be  brought 
in  to  indemnify  parish  ministers  for  repelling  such  from 
the  communion,  as  by  the  rubric  they  are  empowed  to 
do."  This  was  rather  securing  to  the  clergy  their  rights, 
than  opposing  the  dissenters  in  the  favour  they  desired. 
He  thought  the  consciences  of  the  parochial  clergy  doing 
their  duty  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments,  were 
as  much  to  be  considered,  and  to  be  as  tenderly  treated 
as  the  consciences  of  those  who  could  occasionally  con- 
form. And  that  it  was  hard  the  dissenters  should  be 
allowed  to  act  inconsistently,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
benefits  of  the  law ;  while  the  Church  ministers,  for 
acting  consistently,  and  according  to  rule,  incurred  the 
penalties  of  the  law ;  that  is,  were  liable  to  the  damages 
which  any  man  sustained  by  being  rejected  by  them 
from  the  communion.  There  were  also  several  others 
who  voted  with  him  for  the  bills  against  occasional  con- 
formity, who  yet  were  never  thought  unfavourable  to  the 
dissenters. 

In  the  attempt  to  introduce  the  Church  system  into 
Prussia,  Archbishop  Sharp  took  a  deep  interest  which  in 
some  degree  compensated  for  the  culpable  neglect  of  the 
then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Indeed,  in  every  thing 
relating  to  the  Church  at  large.  Archbishop  Sharp  shewed 
his  zeal.  To  the  distressed  Greek  Churches  in  America 
he  was  a  liberal  benefactor,  and  received  with  hospitality 
Arsenius,  Archbishishop  of  Thebais,  when  he  came  to 
England  in  1713.  But  the  proceedings  with  respect  to 
Prussia  are  of  more  immediate  interest. 

The  Protestant  subjects  of  the  kingdom  of  Prussia 
consist  partly  of  Lutherans,  and  partly  of  Calvinists; 
which  latter  call  themselves  the  Reformed;  the  word, 
Calvinist  being  disagreeable  to  them,  and  consequently 
used  only  by  such  as  are  not  their  friends. 

Frederick,  King  of  Prussia,  had  found  it  necessary, 
for  the  greater  solemnity  of  his  coronation,  in  1700, 
to  give  the  title  of  bishops  to  two  of  the  chief  of  his 


388  SHARP,  JOHN. 

clergy,  the  one  a  Lutheran,  the  other  a  Reformed.  The 
former  died  soon  after;  whereupon  the  other,  viz.  Dr. 
Ursinus,  continued  without  a  colleague,  and  with  the 
title  of  bishop.  Since  that  time  the  king,  who  was  a 
lover  of  order  and  decency,  conceived  a  design  of  uniting 
the  two  different  communions  in  his  kingdom,  the 
Lutherans  and  the  Reformed,  in  one  public  form  of 
worship.  And  as  he  had  a  great  respect  for  the  English 
nation  and  Church,  and  held  a  good  opinion  of  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  thought  that 
might  be  the  most  proper  medium  wherein  both  parties 
might  meet.  The  person  who,  above  all  others,  was 
instrumental  in  creating  in  the  king  a  favourable  opinion 
of  the  discipline  and  Liturgy  of  the  English  Church, 
and  in  improving  his  good  dispositions  to  establish 
them  in  his  own  realm,  was  Dr.  Daniel  Ernestus  Jab- 
louski,  a  man  of  great  credit  and  worth,  first  chaplain 
to  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  superintendent  or  senior 
of  the  Protestant  Church  in  Poland.  This  gentleman 
had  received  very  great  prejudices  in  his  youth  against 
the  Church  of  England,  from  those  among  whom  he 
was  educated.  But  after  he  had  been  twice  in  Eng- 
land, and  had  spent  some  time  in  Oxford,  and  in  the 
conversation  of  our  English  divines,  and  in  the  study 
of  our  Liturgy  and  Church  discipline,  he  became  not 
only  reconciled  to  them,  but  an  admirer  of  our  ecclesi- 
astical constitution  ;  and  took  all  opportunities  ever 
after,  of  expressing  his  friendship  and  zeal  for  the 
English  Liturgy  and  ceremonies. 

Dr.  Ursinus  was  likewise  very  well  inclined  to  a  con- 
formity in  worship  and  discipline  to  that  of  the  Church 
of  England;  but  if  he  did  not  prosecute  the  design 
with  a  warmth  and  zeal  equal  to  Jablouski's,  it  may  be 
imputed  to  his  never  having  seen  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  her  own  beauties  and  proper  dress  as  the  other 
had. 

By   the    advice    principally  of   these   two,   the   king 


SHARP,  JOHN.  dm 

ordered  the  English  Liturgy  to  be  translated  into  high 
Dutch,  which  was  done  at  his  University  of  Frankfort- 
upon-the-Oder,  where  the  professors  in  general  were 
friends  to  the  Church  of  England.  This  done,  he 
ordered  his  bishop  Dr.  Ursinus,  to  write  a  letter  in  his 
name  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  acquaint 
him  with  what  had  been,  and  with  what  was  intended 
to  be  done  ;  and  to  ask  his  grace's  advice  about  it.  The 
scheme  was,  if  the  king's  intentions  met  with  due  re- 
ception and  encouragement  from  England,  which  it  was 
presumed  could  not  fail,  to  have  introduced  the  Liturgy 
first  into  the  king's  own  chapel,  and  the  cathedral 
church;  and  to  leave  it  free  for  the  other  churches  to 
follow  the  example ;  and  the  time  prefixed  for  this 
introduction  was  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent,  1706.  It 
was  indeed  debated  in  the  king's  consistory  (called  so 
because  a  privy  counsellor  always  sits  with,  yet  presides 
over  the  divines,)  whether  the  English  Liturgy  should 
be  used,  or  a  new  one  composed  in  imitation  of  it, 
several  objecting,  that  they  should  seem  to  acknow- 
ledge a  dependance  on  the  Church  of  England,  by 
wholly  using  her  service ;  upon  which  some  divines, 
who  were  not  willing  the  design  should  miscarry,  drew 
up  a  formulary,  which  was  put  in  manuscript  into  the 
hands  of  the  king's  bishop. 

A  letter  was  written  by  Dr.  Ursinus  to  his  Grace  of 
Canterbury,  pursuant  to  the  king's  directions.  And 
two  copies  of  the  high  Dutch  version  of  the  English 
Liturgy  were  sent  along  with  it;  one  for  her  majesty 
the  queen,  the  other  for  his  grace.  And  orders  were 
given  to  form  a  correspondence  between  the  principal 
of  the  clergy  of  both  courts,  about  the  means  of  pro- 
moting the  design.  The  letter  and  the  copies  were 
put  into  the  hands  either  of  Baron  Spanheim,  or  M. 
Bonet,  the  king's  ministers.  Her  majesty,  upon  the 
receipt  of  her  copy,  ordered  my  Lord  Raby,  her  minister 
at  the  Court  of  Prussia,  to  return  her  thanks  to  the 
L  l3 


390  SHARP,  JOHN. 

king  and  to  the  bishop  which  was  done.  But  it  unfor- 
tunately happened,  that  the  other  copy,  and  the  letter, 
which  were  designed  for  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
by  some  neglect  or  mistake,  were  not  delivered  to  him  ; 
and  the  more  unfortunate  because  they  were  assured  at 
Berlin,  that  they  had  been  delivered  to  him  by  Mr. 
Knyster,  a  subject  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  then  in 
England.  This  occasioned  some  disgust ;  and  the  king 
having  often  asked  Dr.  Ursinus,  what  answer  the  arch- 
bishop had  given  to  his  letter,  greatly  wondered,  when 
the  bishop,  after  some  time,  continued  to  rej)ly,  that 
as  yet  none  had  been  sent.  And  it  was  thought,  that 
this  misfortune  (but  looked  upon  in  Prussia  rather  as 
a  neglect  in  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,)  was  one  of 
the  chief  occasions  which  made  the  king  grow  cool  in 
the  design. 

Notwithstanding  the  sinful  supineness  of  the  Whig 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  proposal  was  well  received 
by  the  clergy  of  England,  as  w^e  may  learn  from  a  des- 
patch to  the  King  of  Prussia  by  his  minister,  M.  Bonet, 
giving  an  account  of  an  interview  he  had  had  with  the 
English  secretary  of  state.  After  having  spoken  of  the 
Service  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  "  the  most  proper 
that  is  among  Protestants,"  he  addresses  himself  to 
other  considerations.  "  The  j&rst  is,  that  a  conformity 
between  the  Prussian  Churches  and  the  Church  of 
England  would  be  received  with  great  joy  here.  The 
second  is,  that  the  conformity  to  be  wished  for  beyond 
the  sea  relates  more  to  Church  government  than  to  any 
change  in  the  Pdtual  or  Liturgy.  The  clergy  here  are 
for  Episcopacy,  and  look  upon  it,  at  least,  as  of  apos- 
tolical institution,  and  are  possessed  with  the  opinion, 
that  it  has  continued  in  an  uninterrupted  succession 
from  the  Apostles  to  this  present  time ;  and  upon  this 
supposition,  they  allege  there  can  be  no  true  ecclesias- 
tical government  but  under  bishops  of  this  order ;  nor 
true  ministers   of  the  Gospel,  but  such   as   have  been 


SHARP,  JOHN.  391 

ordained  by  bishops ;  and  if  there  be  others  that  do  not 
go  so  far,  yet  they  all  make  a  great  difference  between 
the  ministers  that  have  received  imposition  of  hands 
by  bishops,  and  those  that  have  been  ordained  by  a 
synod  of  presbyters.  A  third  consideration  is,  that  the 
Church  of  England  would  look  upon  a  conformity  of 
this  nature  as  a  great  advantage  to  herself,  and  that  the 
clergy,  united  to  the  Court  and  the  Tories,  are  a  very 
considerable  and  powerful  body.  On  the  other  side, 
the  Whigs,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Independants,  and 
all  the  other  non-conformists  would  look  upon  this  con- 
formity with  great  concern  as  weakening  and  disarming 
their  party.  And  the  electoral  House  of  Brunswick, 
which  depends  more  upon  the  latter  than  the  former, 
may  fear  lest  this  conformity  should  have  other  conse- 
quences. But  though  the  Whigs  have  more  money, 
because  they  are  more  concerned  in  trade,  and  though 
their  chiefs  may  have  the  reputation  at  present  of  a 
superior  genius,  yet  the  others  have  more  zeal  and  con- 
stant superiority  and  interest, 

"  Ut  in  ratione  humillima,  &c." 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  jealousy  of  the  Whigs  and  the 
fear  of  the  Hanoverians  lest  they  should  offend  the  Dis- 
senters, which  prevented  this  noble  scheme  from  being 
accomplished.  Archbishop  Sharp,  however,  endeavoured 
to  further  it  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  continued  his 
correspondence  with  his  Prussian  friends.  Much  im- 
portant information  is  given  on  this  subject  in  the 
Appendix  to  Sharp's  Life  of  Sharp. 

In  the  same  work,  from  which  this  article  is  taken,  we 
find  a  beautiful  and  affecting  specimen  of  the  archbishop's 
private  devotions,  taken  from  his  Diary.  When  he 
resided  at  London,  he  constantly  attended  the  early  sacra- 
ments, (for  the  most  part  at  Whitehall),  that  he  might  be 
at  liberty  to  preach  afterwards  in  the   Parish  Chnrch,  or 


392  SHARP,  JOHN. 

attend  the  Queen's  Chapel,  whither  he  generally  resorted 
for  the  morning  service,  when  he  had  not  engaged  to  sup- 
ply any  pulpit  in  town.  The  afternoon  service  he  had  in 
his  own  family.  In  short,  he  made  it  his  serious  endea- 
vour, as  he  often  remarks,  "'  to  spend  the  whole  Lord's 
day  in  the  best  manner  he  could  to  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  good  of  his  own  soul." 

Thursday  was  the  other  day  of  the  week  that  he  appro- 
priated to  thanksgivings ;  and  these  were  usually  his 
acknowledgments  to  God  of  his  "  great  temporal  mercies 
and  blessings  vouchsafed  to  his  country,  his  family  and 
to  himself,  in  that  he  and  all  who  belonged  to  him, 
lived  in  health,  peace,  and  safety;  joined  with  earnest 
petitions,  that  God  for  His  mercies'  sake,  would  have 
him  and  his  always  in  protection."  In  the  summer 
time,  when  he  resided  at  Bishopsthorp,  and  when  the 
weather  was  fair,  he  usually  offered  these  thanksgivings 
sub  dio,  either  in  his  garden  or  in  the  adjoining  fields  and 
meadows,  whither  he  frequently  walked  to  perform  his 
devotions.  The  parish  Church  of  Acaster  is  within  a 
little  mile  of  the  Archbishop's  Palace.  It  stands  by 
itself  in  the  fields.  Thither  he  frequently  retired  alone 
and  made  the  little  porch  of  that  church  his  oratory, 
where  he  solemnly  addressed  and  praised  God.  And 
here  it  was  that  for  some  years  he  resorted,  as  he  had 
opportunity,  to  perform  his  Thursday  thanksgivings; 
afterwards  he  removed  from  this  place  to  another  which 
was  more  pleasant,  and  more  commodious  too,  as  being 
nearer  his  house  ;  and  this  was  a  shed  or  little  summer 
house,  placed  under  a  shade  on  the  side  of  a  fish-pond 
which  stood  north  of  his  house  and  gardens.  Hither 
he  frequently  retired  for  prayer,  but  most  generally  on 
Thursday.  Afterwards,  when  the  plantations  that  he 
had  made  in  his  garden,  were  grow^n  up  to  some  per- 
fection he  again  changed  the  scene  of  his  thanksgivings 
and  offered  them  up  in  a  particular  walk,  which  from 
thence  he  called  his   Temple  of  Praise.     It  is  a  close 


SHARP,  JOHN.  303 

grass-plot  walk,  lying  north  and  south,  and  hedged  on 
each  side  with  yew,  so  thick  and  high,  as  to  be  com- 
pletely shaded  at  all  times  of  the  day,  except  noon. 
On  the  east  it  hath  a  little  maze  or  wilderness,  that 
grows  considerably  higher.  The  entrance  into  it  at 
each  end  is  through  arches  made  in  a  lime  hedge,  and 
the  view  through  these  arches  immediately  bounded  by 
a  hedge  of  horn-beam  at  one  end,  and  a  fruit  wall  at 
the  other.  So  that  from  within  the  walk,  scarce  any 
thing  is  to  be  seen  but  verdure  and  the  open  sky  above. 
In  this  close  walk,  and  in  the  adjoining  maze,  ( for  pro- 
bably he  adopted  both  at  the  same  time  for  his  Temple  of 
Praise,)  he  spent  many  a  happy  hour,  especially  in  the 
last  years  of  his  life.  Here  was  a  privacy  that  answered 
his  design,  and  a  solemnity  that  suited  his  taste  ;  and  here 
he  poured  out  his  soul  in  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  and 
had  such  delightful  intercourses  with  God,  as  would  affect 
him  to  a  very  great  degree.  Thus,  for  instance,  he  notes, 
in  the  year  1712  : —  "  After  evening  prayers,  I  walked  in 
my  garden,  and  there,  in  my  Temple  of  Praise,  poured 
out  my  soul  to  God  in  an  unusual  ardent  manner;  so 
that  I  think  I  was  never  so  rapturously  devout  in  my 
life."  This  passage  is  brought  to  shew  what  use  he 
made  of  that  place,  and  not  what  effect  the  place  had 
upon  him.  For  indeed  at  this  time  of  life,  he  had 
attained  to  such  a  habit  of  raising  his  affections,  beyond 
what  he  had  been  formerly  able  to  do,  that,  upon  several 
occasions,  he  wrought  himself  into  ardours  which  he 
had  not  felt  in  so  great  a  degree  before.  Thus  for 
instance,  in  the  same  summer: —  "  I  never  was  in  such 
transports  of  devotion  hardly  as  I  was  when  I  came 
home  from  the  Minster,  being  alone  in  the  coach.  I 
never  prayed  more  heartily  and  devoutly  in  my  life. 
And  I  hope  God  will  hear  my  prayers  which  I  put  up 
for  grace  and  mercy,  with  tears." 

He  did  not  neglect  general  literature  or  the  patronage 
of  hterary   men,      Mr.    Speaker    Onslow,    in  a  note  to 


394  SHELDON. 

Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Times,  says  of  Archbishop 
Sharp,  "  He  was  a  great  reader  of  Shakspeare.  Dr. 
Mangaj,  who  had  married  his  daughter,  told  me  that  he 
used  to  recommend  to  young  divines  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  and  Shakspeare.  And  Dr.  Lisle,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  who  had  been  chaplain  at  Lambeth  to  Arch- 
bishop Wake,  told  me  that  it  was  often  related  there,  that 
Sharp  should  say,  that  the  Bible  and  Shakspeare  made 
him  Archbishop  of  York." 

In  every  relation  of  life,  he  seemed  to  excel,  and  was 
beloved  by  all  who  approached  him,  although  he  was 
very  plain  spoken,  and  remonstrated  without  fear,  but 
with  gentleness  with  the  highest  personages,  not  only  in 
his  own  diocese,  but  in  London  when  he  found  them 
transgressing,  and  felt  himself  responsible. 

He  died  at  Bath,  in  1714,  and  was  buried  in  York 
Cathedral,  where  an  inscription  by  Dr.  Smalridge  records 
his  merits.  His  Sermons,  in  7  vols.  8vo,  have  been 
published  since  his  death,  and  are  deservedly  popular. — 
Le  Neve.    Sharps  Life  of  Sharp. 


SHELDON,    GILBEET. 

This  munificent  prelate  was  born  at  Stanton,  in  Staf- 
fordshire, in  the  year  1598,  and  was  educated  at  Trinity 
College,  Oxford,  where  he  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1617. 
In  1622,  he  was  elected  fellow  of  New  College,  and  soon 
after  became  chaplain  to  the  lord-keeper,  Coventry, 
by  whom  he  was  presented  to  a  stall  in  Gloucester 
Cathedral.  In  1633,  he  became  Vicar  of  Hackney, 
having  previously  held  the  Rectory  of  Ickford,  in  Buck- 
inghamshire. In  1634,  he  took  his  D.D.  degree,  and  in 
March,  1635,  was  elected  warden  of  All  Souls.  About  the 
same  time,  he  became  chaplain  in  ordinary  to  his 
majesty,  was  afterwards  clerk  of  his  closet,  and  by 
,laim  designed  to  be  made  master  of  the  Savoy  Hospital, 


SHELDON.  395 

and  Dean  of  Westminster ;  but  his  settlement  in  them 
was  prevented  by  the  rebellion. 

In  February,  1644,  he  was  one  of  the  king's  chap- 
lains sent  by  his  majesty  to  attend  his  commissioners 
(at  the  treaty  of  Uxbridge)  for  their  devotions,  and  for 
the  other  Service  of  the  Church,  as  the  management  of 
the  treaty  required,  which  could  not  be  foreseen. 

In  April,  1646,  we  find  him  attending  his  majesty 
at  Oxford,  and  witness  to  a  remarkable  vow  of  his, 
which  is  published  in  the  Appendix  to  Archdeacon 
Echard's  History  of  England,  p.  5  : — "  In  the  midst  of 
these  uncommon  difficulties,  the  pious  king,  as  it  were, 
reflecting  upon  his  concessions  relating  to  the  Churches 
of  Scotland  and  England,  and  being  extremely  tender 
in  case  of  sacrilegious  encroachments,  wrote  and  signed 
this  extraordinary  vow,  which  was  never  yet  published  : 
— I  do  here  promise  and  solemnly  vow,  in  the  presence 
and  for  the  service  of  Almighty  God,  that  if  it  shall 
please  the  Divine  Majesty,  of  His  infinite  goodness  to 
restore  me  to  my  just  kingly  rights,  and  to  reestablish 
me  in  my  throne,  I  will  wholly  give  back  to  His  Church 
all  those  impropriations  which  are  now  held  by  the  crown ; 
and  what  lands  soever  I  do  now,  or  should  enjoy,  which 
have  been  taken  away,  either  from  any  episcopal  see,  or 
any  cathedral  or  collegiate  church,  from  any  abbey,  or 
other  religious  house.  I  likewise  promise  for  hereafter 
to  hold  them  from  the  Church,  under  such  reasonable 
fines  and  rents  as  shall  be  set  down  by  some  conscien- 
tious persons,  whom  I  propose  to  choose  with  all  up- 
rightness of  heart,  to  direct  me  in  this  particular.  And 
I  most  humbly  beseech  God  to  accept  of  this  my  vow, 
and  to  bless  me  in  the  design  I  have  now  in  hand, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

"Oxford,  April  13,  1646.  Chaeles  K" 

This  is  a  true  copy  of  the  king's  vow,  which  was  pre- 
served thirteen  years  under  ground  by  me, 

3  660,  Aug.  21.  GiLB.  Sheldon. 


396  SHELDON. 

During  the  king's  being  at  Newmarket,  a.d.  1647,  and 
afterwards  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  Sheldon  had  the 
honour  to  attend  his  majesty  as  one  of  his  chaplains. 

In  the  latter  end  of  1647,  he  was  ejected  his  warden- 
ship  by  the  parliament  visitors,  and  in  1648,  was  im- 
prisoned ;  but  obtaining  his  liberty  some  time  after,  he 
retired  to  Snelston  in  Derbyshire,  whence  from  his  own 
purse,  and  from  others  which  he  made  use  of,  he  sent 
constantly  monies  to  the  exiled  king,  and  followed  his 
studies  and  devotions  till  matters  tended  to  a  happy 
restoration.  On  the  4:th  of  March,  1659,  Dr.  John 
Palmer,  w^ho  had  usurped  his  wardenship  almost  twelve 
years,  died  ;  at  which  time  there  being  an  eminent  fore- 
sight of  his  majesty's  return,  there  was  no  election 
made  of  a  successor,  only  a  restitution  of  Dr.  Sheldon, 
though  he  never  took  re-possession. 

On  the  king's  return  he  met  his  majesty  at  Canter- 
bury, and  was  soon  after  made  Dean  of  the  Chapel 
Royal,  and  upon  Bishop  Juxon's  translation  to  Canter- 
bury, was  made  Bishop  of  London,  to  which  he  was 
elected  Oct.  9,  1 660  ;  confirmed  the  23rd,  and  conse- 
crated in  King  Henry  the  Seventh's  Chapel,  at  West- 
minster, on  the  28th  of  the  said  month,  by  Brian 
Winchester,  assisted  by  Accepted  York,  Matthew  Ely, 
John  Rochester,  and  Henry  Chichester,  by  virtue  of  a 
commission  from  the  archbishop,  dated  Oct.  24,  and 
directed  to  them  for  that  purpose. 

He  held  the  mastership  of  the  Savoy  with  the  Bishop- 
ric of  London  ;  for  the  famous  conference  between  the 
episcopal  clergy  and  the  Presbyterian  divines  concerning 
alterations  to  be  made  in  the  Liturgy,  ad.  1661,  was 
held  at  his  lodgings  in  the  Savoy. 

Hence  the  name  of  this  great  historical  event ;  at  the 
first  meeting  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to  confer. 
Bishop  Sheldon  told  the  Presbyterian  theologians,  *'  that 
not  the  bishops,  but  they,  had  been  seekers  of  the  con- 
ference, and  desired  alterations  in  the  Liturgy  :  therefore, 


SHELDON.  397 

there  was  nothing  to  be  done  till  they  had  brought  in  all 
they  had  to  say  against  it  in  writing,  and  all  the 
additional  forms  and  alterations  which  they  desired.  The 
ministers  moved  for  an  amicable  conference,  according  to 
the  commission,  as  thinking  it  more  likely  to  contribute 
to  dispatch,  and  to  the  answering  the  great  end  :  whereas 
writing  would  be  a  tedious,  endless  business,  and  prevent 
that  familiarity  and  acquaintance  with  each  others  minds, 
which  might  facilitate  concord.  But  Bishop  Sheldon  ab- 
solutely insisted  upon  it,  *  that  nothing  should  be  done 
till  all  exceptions,  alterations,  and  additions,  were  brought 
in  at  once.'  And  after  some  debate,  it  was  agreed,  '  that 
they  should  bring  in  all  their  exceptions  at  one  time,  and 
all  their  additions  at  another  time.'  During  the  course 
of  the  conference  the  bishop  did  not  appear  often,  and 
engaged  not  in  all  the  disputation,  and  yet  was  well 
known  to  have  a  principal  hand  in  disposing  of  all  such 
affairs." 

While  he  was  Bishop  of  London  he  contributed  largely 
to  the  repairs  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  damaged  as  that 
college  had  been  by  the  iniquities  of  the  rebellion.  He 
also  had  the  chief  direction  of  the  province  of  Cantor 
bury,  owing  to  the  great  age  of  Archbishop  Juxon,  whose 
successor  he  became  in  1663.  He  expended  large  sums 
upon  the  episcopal  houses  of  the  See  of  London ;  and 
being  translated  to  that  of  Canterbury  in  1663,  he  re- 
built the  Library  at  Lambeth,  and  made  additions  to  its 
contents.  It  was  still  more  to  his  honour,  that  he 
remained  at  Lambeth  during  the  plague  of  London,  and 
exerted  himself,  both  by  his  own  liberal  contributions, 
and  by  promoting  collections  throughout  his  province,  for 
the  relief  of  the  afflicted.  On  the  removal  of  Lord 
Clarendon  from  the  chancellorship  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  he  was  chosen  to  succeed  him  in  December 
1667  ;  and  he  immortalized  his  bounty  to  that  university 
by  the  erection,  at  his  sole  expence,  of  the  celebrated 
theatre  at  Oxford  which  bears  his  name  :   "  Munus  (says 

VOL.  VIII.  M  M 


398  SHELDON. 

Dr.  Lowth  in  an  elegant  oration)  dignum  auctore — quod 
cum  intueor  et  circumspicio,  videor  mihi  in  ipsa  Roma 
vel  in  mediis  Athenis,  antiquis  illis,  et  cum  maxime 
florentibus,  versari,"  This  edifice  was  opened  in  July, 
1669,  soon  after  whicli  he  resigned  his  chancellorship,  and 
retired  from  public  business.  He  had  before  honourably 
lost  the  king's  confidence  by  importuning  him  to  part 
with  his  mistress,  Barbara  Villiers.  During  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  he  chiefly  resided  at  Croydon.  He  died 
at  Lambeth,  on  November  9th,  1677,  in  the  80th  year 
of  his  age. 

Besides  his  learning  and  piety  he  is  particularly  dis- 
tinguished by  his  munificent  benefactions.  We  are 
assured  by  his  relations,  that  from  the  time  of  his 
being  Bishop  of  London  to  that  of  his  death,  it  appeared 
in  his  book  of  accompts,  that  upon  public,  pious,  and 
charitable  uses  he  had  bestowed  about  £66,000.  Another 
author  has  the  following  paragraph. 

Dr.  Sheldon,  while  Bishop  of  London,  (not  to  enu- 
merate particulars)  gave  for  the  augmentation  of  vicarages 
belonging  to  his  see  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
pounds  a  year,  for  which  he  abated  in  his  fines  to  the 
value  of  £1680.  When  advanced  to  the  See  of  Canter- 
bury, he  augmented  the  vicarages  of  Whitestable  in 
Kent,  and  disposed  to  public  pious  uses,  in  acts  of 
munificence  and  charity  (in  his  life,  or  by  his  last  will 
and  testament)  the  sum  of  £72,000,  as  attested  by  his 
treasurer,  Ralph  Snow,  Esq.,  to  whom  his  grace  left  a 
generous  legacy  under  this  distinguishing  style,  "  to  my 
old  and  faithful  servant." 

Elsewhere  it  is  said,  after  the  civil  wars,  there  were 
several  bishops  who  gave  their  helping  hands  to  the 
repairing  and  enlarging  of  Trinity  College  in  Oxford, 
especially  Archbishop  Sheldon. 

His  works  of  piety  and  charity  are  enumerated 
as  follows  by  the  pen  of  the  learned  Mr.  Henry 
Wharton  :— 


SHELDON.  399 

To  my  Lord  Peter,  for  the  purchase       £.       s.    d. 
of  London  House         5200     0     0 

Abated  in  his  fines  for  the  augmen- 
tation of  Vicarages        1680     0     0 

In   the    repair   of   St.  Paul's   before 

the  fire 2169   17   10 

Repairs   of   his    houses   at    Fulham, 

Lambeth,  and  Croydon         4500     0     0 

To  All  Souls  Chapel,  Trinity  College 
Chapel,  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
and  Lichfield  Cathedral      ...      ...       450     0     0 

Charge  of  the  Theatre  at  Oxford  ...    14470  11   11 

To   the    University,   to   buy  land   to 

keep  it  in  perpetual  repair 2000     0     0 

When  he  was  made  bishop,  the 
leases  being  all  expired,  he  abated 
in  his  fines,  (I  suppose  the  above- 
mentioned  article  of  £1680  is 
included  in  this) 17733     0     0 

In  his  will  I  find  the  following  particulars  : — 

*'My  body  I  desire  may  be  decently  buried,  but  very 
privately  and  speedily,  that  my  funeral  may  not  waste 
much  of  what  I  leave  behind  for  better  uses. 

"I  give  to  good,  pious,  and  charitable  uses,  £1500  to 
be  disposed  of  as  I  shall  direct  either  by  writing  or  by 
word  of  mouth ;  or  for  want  of  such  directions,  as  my 
executors  and  overseers  shall  think  fit. 

"  To  my  successors  some  books  mentioned  in  a 
schedule. 

"  All  the  plate,  furniture  and  books  in  the  Chapel  at 
Lambeth  to  my  succesors  in  order. 

"  Whereas  I  formerly  subscribed  £2000  to  the  repair 
of  St.  Paid's,   my  executors  to  discharge  whatever  shall 
remain  unpaid  at  my  decease. 
"  Published  Feb.  5,  1672." 


400  SHERLOCK. 

Sheldon's  only  publication  is,  A  Sermon  preached 
before  the  king  at  Whitehall,  upon  June  8,  1660,  being 
the  day  of  solemn  Thanksgiving  for  the  happy  return 
of  his  majesty,  on  Psalm  xviii.  49,  London,  1660,  4to. — 
Le  Neve.    Wood. 


SHERLOCK,    THOMAS. 

This  distinguished  prelate,  son  of  the  succeeding,  was 
born  in  London  in  the  year  1678.  He  was  educated 
at  Eton,  where  he  was  distinguished  as  a  scholar,  and 
not  less  for  his  love  of  athletic  exercises,  especially  of 
bathing.  From  Eton  he  went  to  Catharine  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  obtained  a  fellowship.  Upon  the  re- 
signation of  his  father,  in  1704,  he  was  made  master  of 
the  Temple,  and,  notwithstanding  his  youth,  soon  ob- 
tained the  respect  of  the  members  of  that  society,  where 
his  preaching  was  blessed  for  many  years  with  eminent 
success.  His  sermons  are,  for  calm  and  steady  reason- 
ing, as  well  as  forcible  expression,  among  the  first  com- 
joositions  we  possess  in  that  department  of  literature. 
He  took  his  degree  of  D.D.  in  1707,  in  which  year  he 
married.  In  1714,  he  was  elected  master  of  Catharine 
Hall,  and  in  1716,  was  promoted  to  the  Deanery  of 
Chichester. 

Except  three  sermons,  preached  on  public  occasions, 
he  did  not  come  forth  as  an  author  until  the  famous 
controversy,  known  as  the  "Bangorian;"  and  he  was 
unquestionably  by  far  the  most  powerful  antagonist 
against  whom  Bishop  Hoadley  had  to  contend.  He 
published  a  great  many  pamphlets  on  the  subject,  the 
chief  of  which  is  entitled,  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Cor- 
poration and  Test  Acts,  in  answer  to  the  Bishop  of 
Bangor's  reasons  for  a  Repeal  of  them,  1718."  To 
this  the  bishop  lost  no  time  in  replying,  yet  while  he 
vehemently  opposed    the   principles    laid    down   in   the 


SHERLOCK.  401 

tract,  he  bore  the  most  unequivocal  testimony  to  the 
abilities  of  the  author.  It  has  been  said  that  Bishop 
Sherlock  afterwards  regretted  the  strong  line  of  conduct 
he  had  taken  with  respect  to  this  controversy,  and  re- 
pented of  the  language  he  had  employed.  Nothing, 
however,  can  be  further  from  the  truth  ;  so  far  from 
changing  his  opinion  on  the  subject,  he  wrote  some 
additional  treatises,  which  he  had  always  wished  to  pub- 
lish. His  views  appear  to  have  remained  unchanged : 
*'  I  have  been  assured,"  says  Bishop  Newton,  whose 
opinion  on  the  point  must  be  decisive,  *'  by  the  best 
authority — by  those  who  lived  with  him  most,  and  knew 
him  best — that  this  intimation  is  absolutely  false." 

The  period  at  which  Bishop)  Sherlock  lived  was  re- 
markable for  the  low  state  of  religious  feeling,  both 
within  and  without  the  pale  of  the  established  Church. 
The  age  of  fanaticism  had  passed  by,  and  had  been 
followed  by  one  in  which  the  great  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  were  thrown  into  the  shade.  The 
fact  has  been  attempted  to  be  denied  ;  but  to  no  purpose. 
The  published  religious  works  of  the  day  afford  proof 
positive  that  this  statement  is  true ;  and  the  testimony 
of  those  who  mourned  over  what  they  could  not  alter, 
places  the  matter  beyond  all  dispute.  A  race  of  un- 
principled men  sprung  up,  desirous  wholly  to  undermine 
the  Christian  faith,  and  on  its  ruins  to  erect  a  wretched 
system  of  deism,  utterly  subversive  of  every  moral 
principle,  loosing  man  from  all  moral  restraints,  and 
allowing  him  to  lead,  without  dread  of  a  judgment,  a  life 
of  unbounded  sensuality,  with  the  flattering  promise, 
"death  is  an  eternal  sleep."  "  All  who  had  objections 
of  their  own  to  offer,  or  who  might  hope  to  serve  their 
cause  by  reviving  the  calumnies  of  others,  were  at  perfect 
liberty  to  produce  them.  Accordingly  the  authenticity 
of  the  Bible,  more  especially  of  Christianity,  was  assailed 
at  all  points  by  a  host  of  free-thinkers  and  sophistical 
reasoners,  with  a  versatility  of  skill  unknown  to  its 
M  M    3 


402  SHERLOCK. 

ancient  adversaries,  and  a  zeal  as  indefatigable  in  its 
exertions  as  it  was  bold  and  ingenious  in  its  contri- 
vances. History,  philosophy,  literature,  and  romance, 
wit,  satire,  ridicule,  reproach,  and  even  falsehood,  were 
all  leagued  in  this  conspiracy,  and  furnished,  in  their 
turn,  arms  for  prosecuting  this  unnatural  rebellion 
against  light  and  truth,"  Although  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
even  where  he  sets  up  ridicule  as  the  test  and  criterion 
of  truth,  expresses  his  strong  and  decided  disapprobation 
of  scurrilous  buffoonery,  gross  raillery  and  an  illiberal 
kind  of  wit,  and  that  what  is  contrary  to  good  breeding 
is  in  this  repect  as  contrary  to  liberty. 

Anthony  Collins  published,  though  as  was  his  custom 
without  his  name,  his  "  Discourse  of  the  Grounds  and 
Reasons  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  a  book  which  made 
a  great  noise ;  for  "  the  turn  given  to  the  controversy,' 
says  Dr.  Leland,  "  had  something  in  it  that  seemed 
new,  and  was  managed  with  great  art ;  and  yet,  when 
closely  examined,  it  appears  to  be  weak  and  trifling." 
In  enumerating  the  many  admirable  and  convincing 
replies  to  this  work,  a  most  powerful  treatise  issued  from 
the  pen  of  Dr.  Chandler,  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coven- 
try. Dr.  Leland  says,  "  it  may  be  proper  also  to  men- 
tion a  book  which  was  occasioned  by  '  the  Grounds,'  &c., 
though  not  directly  in  answer  to  it,  entitled,  '  The  use 
and  Intent  of  Prophecy  in  the  several  ages  of  the 
Church,'  by  Dr.  Thomas  Sherlock,'  &c.  &c.  This  is 
an  excellent  performance ;  in  which  a  regular  series  of 
prophecy  is  deduced  through  the  several  ages  from  the 
beginning,  and  its  great  usefulness  shown.  The  various 
degrees  of  light  are  distinctly  marked  out,  which  were 
successively  communicated  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
answer  the  great  ends  of  religion  and  the  designs  of 
Providence,  till  those  great  events  to  which  they  were 
intended  to  be  subservient  should  receive  their  accom- 
plishment. Dr.  Sherlock  greatly  distinguished  himself 
by  this  publication,  which,  if  possible,  proved  more  fully 


SHERLOCK.  403 

the  strength  of  his  mental  powers,  and  the  depth  and 
extent  of  his  varied  acquirements,  Collins's  opinions 
were  that  man  is  a  mere  machine.;  that  the  soul  is 
material  and  mortal ;  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  built 
on  the  predictions  of  fortune-tellers,  and  divines;  that 
the  Prophets  were  mere  fortune-tellers  and  discoverers 
of  lost  goods ;  that  Christianity  stands  wholly  on  a  false 
foundation.  Yet  he  speaks  respectfully  of  Christianity, 
and  also  of  the  Epicureans,  whom  he  at  the  same  time 
regards  as  Atheists. 

Woolston  now  appeared  as  the  champion  of  infidelity. 
His  object  was  to  allegorize  away  the  miracles  of  our 
Lord,  as  Collins  had  attempted  to  act  with  respect  to 
the  prophecies.  But  his  conduct  was  flagrant  in  the 
extreme.  He  is  styled  by  JMosheim  "  a  man  of  an  in- 
auspicious genius,  who  made  the  most  audacious  though 
senseless  attempts  to  invalidate  the  miracles  of  Christ." 
"  Many  glaring  instances  of  unfairness  and  disingenuity 
in  his  quotations  from  the  fathers  were  plainly  proved 
upon  him.  It  was  shown  that  he  had  quoted  books 
generally  allowed  to  be  spurious  as  the  genuine  works 
of  the  fathers ;  and  hath,  by  false  taanslations  and 
injurious  interpolations,  and  foisting  in  of  words,  done 
all  that  was  in  his  power  to  pervert  the  true  sense 
of  the  authors  he  quotes ;  and  that  sometimes  he  inter- 
prets them  in  a  manner  directly  contrary  to  their  own 
declared  sense,  in  the  very  passages  he  appeals  to,  as 
would  have  appeared  if  he  had  fairly  produced  the  whole 
passage.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  an  author 
who  was  capable  of  such  a  conduct  should  stick  at  no 
methods  to  expose  and  misrepresent  the  accounts  given 
by  the  evangelists  of  our  Saviours  miracles.  Under 
pretence  of  showing  the  absurdity  of  the  literal  and 
liistorical  sense  of  the  facts  recorded  in  the  Gospels, 
he  hath  given  himself  an  unrestrained  license  in  invec- 
tive and  abuse.  The  books  of  the  Evangelists,  and  the 
facts  there  related,  he  hath  treated  in  a  strain  of  low 


404  SHERLOCK. 

and  coarse  buffoonery,  and  with  an  insolence  and  scur- 
rility that  is  hardly  to  be  paralleled." 

Dr.  Sherlock  took  up  the  cause  of  truth  with  great 
talent  and  decision.  He  clearly  perceived  the  knavery 
as  well  as  weakness  of  his  antagonist ;  and  he  published 
his  well  known  small  treatise^  "  The  Trial  of  the  Wit- 
nesses of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus,  1729  ;"  a  work 
which  has  gone  through  a  very  large  number  of  editions, 
and  which  Leland  describes  as  being  "universally 
admired  for  the  polite  and  uncommon  turn,  as  well 
as  the  judicious  manner  of  treating  the  subject." 

In  1728,  he  was  promoted  to  the  See  of  Bangor,  in 
which  he  succeeded  his  antagonist  Bishop  Hoadley ;  as 
he  did,  in  1738,  in  that  of  Salisbury.  As  his  intimacy 
with  the  members  of  the  legal  profession,  while  master  of 
the  Temple,  had  given  him  a  propensity  to  study  the 
law,  and  he  had  naturally  a  turn  to  business,  he  was  not 
a  silent  occupier  of  a  seat  in  the  house  of  lords,  but 
occasionally  joined  in  debates,  as  a  supporter  of  the 
interests  of  the  Crown  and  Church,  in  which  he  delivered 
himself  with  force  and  elegance.  He  opposed  the  bill 
brought  in  17B1  from  the  house  of  commons,  respecting 
members  being  pensioners,*  regarding  it  as  tending  to 
diminish  the  influence  of  the  crown  in  that  house,  and 
thereby  to  disturb  the  balance  of  the  constitution.  He 
not  only  spoke,  but  by  his  influence  excited  an  opposition 
out  of  doors,  against  an  attempt  to  settle  an  unvaried 
and  certain  stipend  on  the  clergy  in  lieu  of  tithes.  He 
was  considered  in  parliament  as  a  great  authority  in 
ecclesiastical  law,  and  frequently  led  the  judgment  of  the 
house.  Such  was  the  reputation  he  acquired  in  the  epis- 
copal character,  that  upon  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Potter  in  1747,  he  was  offered  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
which  he  declined  on  account  of  ill  health  ;  but  after- 
wards recovering,  he  accepted  the  See  of  London,  vacant 
in  1749. 

In  the  month  of  February,  1750,  a  violent  shock  of  an 


SHERLOCK.  405 

earthquake,  which  had  been,  as  it  were,  announced  by 
some  remarkable  coruscations  of  aurora  borealis,  with 
tremendous  tempests  of  thunder,  lightning,  hail  and 
rain,  greatly  terrified  the  inhabitants  of  the  metropolis  : 
and  this  terror  was  redoubled  by  a  similar  phenomenon, 
on  the  very  same  day  of  the  following  month,  between 
five  and  six  in  the  morning.  The  shock  was  immediately 
preceded  by  a  succession  of  thick  low  flashes  of  lightning, 
and  a  rumbling  noise  like  that  of  a  heavy  carriage  rolling 
over  a  hollow  pavement :  its  vibrations  shook  every  house 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  in  many  places  the  church-bells 
were  heard  to  strike ;  people  started  naked  from  their 
beds,  and  ran  to  their  doors  and  windows  in  a  state  of 
distraction  ;  yet  no  house  was  overthrown  and  no  life  was 
lost.  However,  the  periodical  recurrence  of  the  shocks, 
and  the  superior  violence  of  the  second,  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  the  more  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious part  of  the  community ;  who  began  to  fear  lest 
another  such  visitation  should  be  attended  with  more 
dismal  consequences.  These  sentiments  of  terror  and 
dismay  soon  spread,  and  were  augmented  to  an  extraor- 
dinary degree  by  a  fanatical  soldier,  who  went  about  the 
streets  preaching  up  repentance,  and  boldly  prophesying 
that  another  shock  in  the  same  day  in  April  w^ould  lay 
the  mighty  Babylon  in  ruins.  '  Considering  the  infec- 
tious nature  of  fear  and  superstition,'  says  the  historian, 
and  the  emphatic  manner  in  which  the  imagination  had 
been  prepared  and  preposssssed,  it  was  no  wonder  that 
the  prediction  of  this  illiterate  enthusiast  should  have 
contributed  in  a  great  measure  to  augment  the  general 
terror.  The  churches  were  crowded  with  penitent  sin- 
ners ;  the  sons  of  riot  and  profligacy  were  overawed  into 
sobriety  and  decorum.  The  streets  no  longer  resounded 
with  execrations  or  the  noise  of  brutal  licentiousness  ; 
and  the  hand  of  charity  was  liberally  opened.  Those 
whom  fortune  had  enabled  to  retire  from  the  devoted  city, 
fled  to  the  country  with  hurry  and  precipitation ;  inso- 


408  SHERLOCK. 

much  that  the  highways  were  encumbered  with  horses 
and  carriages.  Many  who  had  in  the  beginning  com- 
bated these  groundless  fears  with  the  weapons  of  reason 
and  ridicule,  began  insensibly  to  imbibe  the  contagion, 
and  felt  their  hearts  fail  in  proportion  as  the  hour  of  pro- 
bation approached :  even  science  and  philosophy  were  not 
proof  against  the  unaccountable  effects  of  this  communi- 
cation :  in  after  ages  it  will  hardly  be  believed  that  on 
the  evening  of  the  8th  day  of  April,  the  open  fields  that 
skirt  the  metropolis  were  filled  with  an  incredible  num- 
ber of  people  assembled  in  chairs,  in  chaises,  and 
coaches,  as  well  as  on  foot,  who  waited  in  the  most  fear- 
ful suspense,  until  morning  and  the  return  of  day 
disproved  the  truth  of  the  dreaded  prophecy.  Then 
their  fears  vanished;  they  returned  to  their  respective 
habitations  in  a  transport  of  joy  ;  were  soon  reconciled  to 
their  abandoned  vices,  which  they  seemed  to  resume  with 
redoubled  affection;  and  once  more  bade  defiance  to  the 
vengeance  of  Heaven. 

The  Bishop  of  London  took  advantage  of  the  peculiar 
state  of  feeling  into  which  the  public  mind  had  been 
forced  by  these  extraordinary  events,  to  address  a  "  Pas- 
toral Letter  to  the  Clergy  and  Inhabitants  of  London 
and  Westminster,  on  occasion  of  the  late  Earthquakes." 
This  was  bougbt  up  and  read  with  such  avidity  by  all 
ranks  of  people,  that  more  than  100,000  copies  were  sold 
within  a  month.  A  tract  also  which  he  composed  on  the 
observance  of  Good  Friday  is  said  to  have  had  great 
effect,  in  a  moral  and  religious  point  of  view.  Nor  would 
it  be  right  if  we  omitted  to  mention  his  admirable 
Charge,  the  only  one  he  published,  which  he  printed  and 
distributed  among  his  clergy  in  1759,  and  in  which  a 
profound  knowledge  of  the  law,  both  of  Church  and 
State,  is  applied  with  paternal  affection  to  their  use  and 
service. 

He  still  held  his  ofiice  in  the  Temple  till  1753,  when 
he  resigned  it  in  an  Affectionate  Letter  to  the  Benchers. 


SHERLOCK,  WILLIAM.  407 

Infirmities  soon  after  accumulated  upon  him  ;  he  nearly- 
lost  the  use  of  his  limbs  and  speech,  but  still  retained 
vigour  of  understanding  sufficient  for  the  revision  and 
correction  of  a  volume  of  sermons,  which  was  follow^ed 
by  four  volumes  more.